Reimu's Experience In Bird Keeping
by NeoBio
Summary: After an impactful meeting with a certain raven, Reimu learns that Utsuho feels like she needs to repay Reimu after saving her during the events of Subterranean Animism. After discussing it with a certain mind reader, it becomes Reimu's duty to take care of Utusho as she repays the miko. This decision ends up changing the two's lives forever.
1. Chapter 1: A Good Morning

What a truly lovely morning.

Her owner, Satori Komeiji, was asleep, and the reactor was a lovely shade of magma orange that bathed the entire core in its copper light. It was stable, of course. It would take much more than resting for a few hours to destabilize such an advanced core. It was her job to regulate the fires in hell, and she knew she couldn't disobey her owner.

Stretching out, Utsuho examined where she was, wings still flapping despite the raven's slumber. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and went to look on how the reactor was doing. The gauges said the heat was fine, fusion was steady, and it had enough water to keep the core from melting down. The coolant was working; hopefully no one noticed the accidental change in temperature for a few seconds...

Everything was in check: no damage, no destabilization, nothing. It was going to be a good day today. Maybe, since it was so calm, she could go–

"Not now. You haven't even eaten yet, come."

Satori came in, answering Utsuho before she could even finish her own thought. She knew her owner meant well, but this didn't change the fact that she wanted to go outside. Despite this, she couldn't help but smile; her owner had always been a loving one, so she knew that she had her reasons.

While eating some sunflower seeds (that she accidentally burnt) and other assorted seeds and meats, Satori brushed Utsuho's hair, and preened her feathers for her.

"Hold still. I need to preen you."

The raven couldn't stop bouncing; she always liked these sessions. It felt nice, even if the tangles in her hair and the occasional plucking of a feather hurt, it was nice to be taken care of. She probably would've forgotten to do it herself were she on her own. Plus, the way she was so gentle with her was really relaxing.

"I still want to go outside, Lady Satori," the solar bird pleaded, it'd been far too long

"Fine. The reactor hasn't acted up recently, and you keep bouncing too. Maybe you need to burn off some energy...?"

Utsuho practically squawked she was so ecstatic. Imagining the wind going through her feathers, the nice breeze to cool her off, the sun shining down from the sky and the lush forests below. It was all so beautiful.

"Hey, try not to get too excited. And don't bother anyone, nobody's awake right now."

* * *

A cool breeze swept across the terrestrial plane. The morning birds chirped, the sunrise was overcast by the shadows of the forest, and with them, leaves. Too many leaves.

Reimu sighed. Her cleaning duties having been finished early, probably far too early, especially for a shrine that got so few worshippers. She had to keep it nice and presentable for them at the very least.

She walked back to the shrine, and gave a little prayer to that ever-elusive Hakurei god. If they'd just show up, or at least talk to her, it'd make sending faith to them so much easier. But alas, all the miko could do was sigh and make herself a cup of tea. She got up, deciding to go back outside, and took her teacup with her. It wasn't like she was going to spill it.

It was nice to watch the sunrise, it wasn't a sight she'd seen a whole lot, what with focusing on danmaku battles and solving incidents at this hour. She never really got the time to truly intake the colours the sky became as the sun crept its way further up the horizon.

Today was a good da–

*CRUNCH*

Reimu was so startled by this that she twitched and ended up spilling tea on herself. Slamming the door open, she went to investigate whatever that… small earthquake mixed with bones breaking was. As the dust settled from the crash, she slowly was able to make out a stone leg, large, oil black wings, and a cape covering those wings

"Utsuho?"

The raven let out a dazed babble trying to respond, still affected by the whole stone-to-face high-five she'd just been involved in. Before the she could process it, it seemed that she was already being treated by a mysterious red figure. It also seemed like… her nose didn't feel right…

"You okay? You broke your nose pretty bad…"

Utsuho gave a more sober "huh?" response, before a small wave of pain hit her, and then another one accompanied by the sound of cartilage moving, all while Reimu was coming into view.

"Better?"

It took a second for Utsuho to react, but she instantly hugged her in thanks for the help. This came to the chagrin of Reimu, not expecting any physical contact, and especially not a hug that strong either.

"Hey! Hey! You're getting blood on my uniform!"

Reimu pushed the Utsuho off of herself, putting a tissue in her nostrils, to avoid any more crimson staining anything else. Reimu decided that she'd just wipe the blood off of the stones outside of the shrine before changing any of her clothes. She'd probably get blood on it while cleaning, anyways. She kept a close eye on the raven as she walked out, a wooden bucket filled with some water and mop in her hands "Stay here, I need to clean up your impact stains."

"Okay!" Utsuho replied with an almost infectious amount of cheer in her voice.

It took Reimu a lot less time than she'd originally thought it would take for her to clean up the red liquid from her shrine's premises, but it did still eat up a lot of her time. Also, surprisingly, Utsuho stayed inside, even if she was bouncing in place, humming to herself as she waited. She then looked over at the shrine maiden, and gave her wave and a large smile. _She's actually kinda cute._ Reimu thought. She could see why Satori kept her as a pet.

She let out a large breath, almost as to assure herself that she'd finished the job, and walked back in. She put the bucket near the sink, and the mop close by. She didn't know what to do with all of the bloodied water, but she thought someone might come by and need it for whatever reason. _Sometimes, yōkai needed weird things like that._

"Hey, uhh… Are you okay?" Utsuho, looked over responding with "Yeah!" then vigorously nodded her head reassuringly.

To have so much energy… must feel nice… Reimu thought to herself, taking a split second's pause to let her mind wander about. Reimu left the room for a change of clothes, wetted the dirtied outfit, and let it hang outside in the fully risen early morning sun. She then went back over to the table, sat adjacent to Utsuho.

"So, what brought you here?" Reimu asked Utsuho, who in turn tapped her lower lip in thought. "Oh! Um… I was flying, and the wind felt so good through my feathers. I did a flip in the air, and I closed my eyes. Then before I knew it, I crashed into the ground."

The shrine maiden looked at the raven in front of her incredulously, almost annoyed. "So… you flew… with your eyes closed?"

Utsuho rubbed the back of her head, and let out a small, embarrassed chuckle, before closing her eyes then averting herself from looking Reimu in the face.

"Yeah…"

Reimu felt like she was just wasting her time with this birdbrained yokai. Even if this girl wasn't causing an incident… She was getting on this miko's nerves.

"Oh! Also, thank you!"

Utsuho spoke up, catching Reimu off guard. She vaguely remembered her stating this before right after she'd finally finished that hellish mission through former hell. She swore it took a few washes to get all that sweat off of herself. Like last time, though, she was taken aback, and took a few seconds to respond.

"Oh… uh… thanks."

She hoped this satiated Utsuho's cheery pleasantries, and that she could be on her way so that she shrine could be in it's state of eerie, but peaceful solitude. But instead, she felt a bump on the table below her, tipping their cups over. Reimu caught hers in time, but as the Utsuho was stretching, she got tea all over her shirt. Reimu got her a towel, when she locked eyes with… whatever was on Utsuho's chest.

"What's that…?"

"Hmm…? Oh! That's my third eye!" Utsuho chirped.

 _A third eye… huh._ Nevertheless, she helped clean her shirt to some success, but a slight stain remained. It seemed that'd have to be washed out. Even after taking her mind off of it for a bit, Reimu found herself staring at the burning crimson eye.

"You can touch it if you want." The raven replied, even before Reimu could think about asking that question.

She felt like she didn't want to, but the curiosity and the suggestion chewed inwardly at the edges of her consciousness, slowly eating its way to her central focus. After a few moments, she conceded to her curiosities, and went to touch the eye.

It felt a surprising amount like a polished crystal, but, hot, almost burning hot, and her being able to feel a faint pulsing within the eye. It was kinda weird, but, she couldn't stop touching it for some reason, until she got a minor burn on her hand. Utsuho seemed unaware of this though, just smiling and puffing her chest out for ease of access to the eye.

"I can't actually see through it, but if lady Satori says it's a third eye, I guess it is."

Reimu wrapped some bandages around the palm of her hand and some of her fingers while Utsuho mused about the naming of the third eye. _Wait, speaking of Satori…_

"Hey. Aren't you supposed to be in hell?" Reimu stopped mid-sip to ask, holding her cup out in front of her face.

"No, Lady Satori let me fly out today." Okuu said, her smile being probably one of the largest and most genuine the shrine maiden had ever seen.

"But isn't your job like… heating up hell or something?"

"Oh, nope! I have to cool down the fire and heat in hell by making sure the fusion reactor stays stable. Don't want it overheating or cooling down too much and wasting a bunch of flammable gases." The raven responded matter-of-factly.

"Fusion what?"

"Fusion reactor. It's a big machine thing that uses really powerful magnets to make elemental isotopes like deuterium and tritium or helium-3 heat up and float in mid air. They get really hot and it's like we've made a tiny little sun donut inside the machine, and it gives off a lot of energy. But if it gets too hot, then the magnets melt, and everything just kinda is wasted. Too cold and nothing can smash into each other."

Reimu was completely speechless. She thought the bird was just kinda stupid, but here she was, saying words that she had absolutely no idea what in the hell they were supposed to mean. She just took a loud sip, hoping it would end the hell avian's radioactive fusion lesson and they could talk about things Reimu actually knew anything about, but Utsuho didn't notice this.

What finally brought an end to the lecture was the fact that the shrine maiden's stomach roared, probably from skipping too many meals for the past week due to an even further dip in the shrine's popularity. She wished she could get into better contacts with her seemingly silent god, but she couldn't, and the fact that she wasn't exactly the most social person didn't help get her shrine any popularity, either. Maybe she should try praying to the god again soon?

She snapped back to reality after spacing out for a bit, and had a concerned bird looking back at her. _Why was she concerned? It wasn't like she needed any help with much. Really, she can handle herself alone pretty well, plus, she liked being alone, no one to force you to do anythin–_

*GROWL*

Her stomach spoke once more. Sighing, Reimu got up and went to get some food, but when she looked in, there was no food left. The search wasn't over yet, and so, she walked over to the donations box, opened it and…

Nothing.

Another sigh, and slumping over a bit, she placed the covering on the box again, and walked back inside when her advance was halted by a sudden large shadow. The miko opened her eyes just soon enough not to smack the top of her head into Utsuho's third eye. This sudden appearance elicited a shriek and some backwards stumbling from Reimu, before regaining her balance.

"Wanna come over to the reactor? I could get lady Satori to get you food." The raven beamed.

Food with the mind reader…? She didn't fancy that. People messing or reading her thoughts kinda felt like an invasion of privacy, but at least she didn't have to talk… Then again, she didn't have anything to eat, but she could probably ask Marisa for a mushroom or something lik–

Suddenly her wrist was grasped, and the shrine maiden was lifted into the air.

"Don't worry Reimu. You don't seem to be feeling very well, so I'll bring you to our palace. Lady Satori always knows what to do when I'm not feeling good."

Suddenly Reimu felt like she was flying at hyperspeed, and the wind threatening to weaken her grasp. Even still, the Utsuho was pretty strong, so the only thing she'd need to worry about is going so fast that her arm dislocated. It seemed like an encounter with the mind reader was inevitable then…

* * *

 _Author's note:_

Hey. This is my first fanfic ever, so sorry if it's a bit sloppy ;u; . Any pointers on how I could improve would be appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2: Day Out

Reimu looked down at the, a little uncomfortable as she was being dragged further into the Komeiji palace. On the way in, she'd caught glances of the other hell ravens and blaze cats that resided inside of the palace. It was just as spacious as she remembered, thinking of the danmaku battles that'd taken place here. It must've costed those girls a fortune to live down here. That or they'd inherited it.

"Lady Satori!"

Reimu broke from her train of thought and was snapped into the uncomfortably hot and doom-impending present. The area of the ever-expansive palace they'd come into was much smaller than the other rooms, and felt much more house-like, rather than the huge, cathedral-like rooms they'd been passing for the last bit of time. Before long, she met the pink-haired girl's three-eyed gaze, which instantly made her sweat more than she was already. She was going to have to wash this uniform later…

"Welcome back Ooku. And I see you brought the Hakurei miko with you."

She turned to look at Reimu more directly.

"Thank you for taking care of her, and Okuu is just a name we call her."

Reimu was getting more unnerved. The questions she thought of, and the memories she was going to bring up to explain the raven's current situation were getting instantaneous replies, before ever leaving her mouth. She wasn't able to dwell on this much, as Utsuho had already dragged her to the table, and sat down next to Satori. Opposite to her was her other favoured pet, Rin, who was busy sleeping while Satori pet the yokai's head on her lap.

Not noticing she'd been staring at the trio motionlessly, the miko sat down, Utsuho smiling as she did, pushing food towards her. She just stared at the food, stomach roaring once more. Unfortunately, she wasn't sure she was able to eat much of this food, seeds, raw fish, which didn't even look prepared, and some sort of mystery meat that looked quite long and kind of sinewy.

Before she knew it, she'd been given more familiar food. Some fruits, a bit of rice, and meat that was more recognizable and properly prepared. Satori sat back down, placing the crimson-haired cat's head on her lap, having transferred it from a pillow.

"You can eat, don't worry."

The meat that Satori brought was fish that was marinated in some sort of sweet sauce. After a bit she was halfway through her meal, she noticed that nothing was happening, and she had the two conscious yōkai staring at her, wordlessly.

"Umm…" Reimu voiced her discomfort.

"We're not used to visitors, so it's usually quiet here." The raven replied, shrugging and closing her eyes.

Reimu was drawn to Utsuho's chest, and looked as the bird's third eye as it remained always open. This reminded her of something the two discussed earlier…

"Oh. Okuu's third eye? It just lets you get closer to her heart. I just say it's third eye because it looks like one." Satori answered before Reimu was even consciously aware that she was thinking about that. It still felt kind of creepy...

Wait, closer to her heart? That doesn't make total sense… she thought the closer you can get to the heart is the left chest? But if that does mean if it lets you get closer to her heart then… wait she touched it…

Right as realization hit her, she donned a serious, but still soft expression on her face. "Okuu only lets yōkai she's very close to touch her third eye. I can tell it doesn't mean much when she thanks you for when you stopped her rampage, but she really means it."

While the hell raven in question didn't really react much to this, she was still looking at her owner as she talked. Meanwhile, Reimu took it pretty well, if only blushing a little. It felt nice to be appreciated, not many people she knew of thanked her, or thanked her in a way that wasn't accidentally or intentionally backhanded…

"Y-yeah. Like I said, you're welcome, Utsuho You don't need to thank me." She scratched behind her ear.

"No, I want to! You stopped me from like, exploding or something!" The raven insisted, accidentally hitting her owner in the face with her feathers. Satori gave a look to Reimu telling her that she'd only stop if a way to repay her was given. With no other options seeming to be given, and not wanting to be pestered any longer, she sighed again, only being able to think of one thing. She knew that the mind reader was already considering her proposition.

"Fine. If Satori's fine with it, you can work as an assistant at the Hakurei shrine. Only if the reactor isn't gonna like, blow up if you don't look at it." She told Okuu, in a defeated yet stern voice. She knew it wouldn't help the popularity amongst the humans, but it was all she could think of without burdening others at that moment.

Ooku's eyes lit up, almost as if the fusion energy stored inside the bird was threatening to burst out from behind her red eyes. When she looked at her owner with those eyes and a pleading look, Satori knew it was over. With a small chuckle and a smile, Reimu agreed.

It was up to her to figure out how to get some sort uniform for the raven without ruining her own. Utsuho needed a way to fit in, after all. Mentally flipping through the people and yokai she knew, she thought of some of the ones who knew how to make clothing. _This is gonna take awhile..._

"I'm very sorry that I cannot help with this. I have my pets to attend to, and I was going to check up on my sister today. And no Okuu, Yamame can't sew, she can only spin webs." She mentioned, and Utsuho deflated a little. "I'm sure one of the yōkai you've chosen will help you, though. Good luck."

So they were off again. Even while trying to say goodbye, the miko was being dragged along by Okuu. It still surprised her that she had so much energy and strength in her. She worried about Satori's well being a little bit, but she remembered how obedient she was.

"Bye Lady Satori!" The raven called back, before taking off.

* * *

Stop 1: Alice Margatroid

After some instructions from Reimu, Utsuho landed in front of a cottage in the middle of the forest. Utsuho looked like she wanted to explore the woods, but Reimu kept her pretty close, explaining the dangers of the forest. Afterwards, she knocked on the door loudly, and called out to Alice.

"Oh! U-uh, coming!" She called out. A few moments later, the door opened "Oh! Reimu! And… Utsuho…!?" Alice exclaimed, her arms being brought to her chest and fingers starting to twitch wildly, almost like she was trying to gesticulate with her fingers alone.

"Don't worry, she's okay now. Anyways, I came here to ask about making an assistant's outfit for Utsuho. She's going to help me work around the shrine for a bit. If it can look similar to my uniform, that'd be good."

Alice looked away a bit guiltily, and began to talk, actually gesticulating this time, seemingly as a way to help her think and form words correctly. "Oh… I can't, I'm working on a new doll type, and I don't want to lose focus."

"Oh, okay then." Reimu replied flatly.

Alice waved the two goodbye as they walked away from the shack, then taking off towards the next one on Reimu's list.

* * *

Stop 2: Nitori Kawashiro

The two made landfall after asking Marisa for specifics of where a certain Kappa lived. The directions weren't exact, but they made do. Eventually they found her after having to ask around the village.

"Hey, Nitori?" Reimu asked, before the door opened up, but Nitori refused to move herself from whatever she was working on.

"Come in!" Nitori called out.

The two entered Nitori's house, passing hallways of scrap parts, inactive machines, and bundles of wires. Eventually, they found themselves in Nitori's lab. It had large industrious lights bathing the blue-grey hues of metal in an intense artificial light. It took a few steps in for them to be able to see her toiling away on a project, though she stopped as soon as their footsteps came into earshot.

"Hey Reimu, Utsuho," She flicked the front of her hat upwards,and wiped sweat and grime from her upper brow. "What do you two want?"

"I need some help a uniform like my miko outfit. For Utsuho." Reimu replied.

This statement caught Nitori by surprise, before giving a exasperated look towards the miko. "I'm an engineer, not a seamstress." She explained.

"I know, but don't you have some sort of a machine that can sew automatically?" Reimu rebutted

"No." Nitori replied flatly.

Reimu sighed out of disappointment, but then inched a little closer to the kappa, which made her squirm a bit. "I do have another request of you, though." She asked, a bit hushed. "You see, having Utsuho at the shrine is going to be difficult, and I need some sort of backup if the shrine gets too damaged for me to repair alone."

Nitori sighed. "I would totally help you if this was caused by an incident, but, you've brought this on yourself, so it'll cost you for repairs, but I know you don't have a whole lot of money to pay me with."

The miko nodded in understanding, before getting Utsuho's attention and starting to walk back out of the laboratory. "See you later Nitori!" Reimu yelled back.

"Bye!" Nitori replied, waving back.

* * *

Stop 3: Shinmyoumaru Sukuna

Or, well… it would've been if Reimu could even remember where the castle was. All she remembered were storms and an upside down castle, and she wasn't about to go on another fetch quest… so… I seemed like she was going to have to go with her final, and most worrisome choice…

* * *

 _Why did she come here again? It would be fine if Utsuho walked around the shrine in her usual clothing, right? But maybe it would be a status symbol if she had a yokai as an assistant… No, that would probably worsen her reputation._

Reimu was thinking of any possible way to avoid this confrontation. Sure, Marisa got along with them well, but she was… Marisa. She wasn't exactly friendly with them... She had no idea what to expect.

Why was she even doing this? It wasn't like it would matter too much if Utsuho felt like she needed to repay her and wasn't able to. Maybe she could've told her that rampaging and trying to take over the world was enough. She was about to tell Utsuho, but as she looked at her, she could see her smile weakening. With this, a pang of guilt tore at her mind.

"Oh, hey, Utsuho?"

"Yeah?" She asked, leaning her head down to Reimu's height.

"How much do you want this outfit? And do you really want to work at the shrine?"

Utsuho's eyes lit up, like they were about to shoot out the very rays of the sun itself out at her. A small flap put her in front of Reimu, halting their advance. "It'd be so– nice! I don't have any other clothes than these, and you look really good in your outfit, so I'll probably look good in one, too! And I really want to repay you! I mean… you could relax and I can help you out a bunch, then we could talk, and you could preen me and–"

She just kept rambling on, Reimu eventually took a step forwards, and Utsuho resigned to walking beside her. She knew that whatever made her weak before was taking effect here, too. She had to get Oku– Utsuho an outfit, if only so she'd be quiet and happy about it. The raven's voice still trailed on, even as they passed the forest and entered a clearing.

In the centre of the grassy circle was mansion burgundy like deoxygenated blood, with a high wall separating it from the open plain and it's doors. The high walls somewhat obscured the beast of a mansion whom was a mixture of gothic and renaissance styles of architecture, and windows dimmed a deep red colour in certain areas. The Scarlet Devil Mansion was quite the status symbol, and was a surprising feat to have been built in such small amounts of time.

Okuu didn't seem to notice, still too preoccupied with her train of thought to pay much attention to her surroundings. I wasn't until a woman with hair red like flames spoke to the two of them.

"Miko? What are you doing here?" The woman asked. She was wearing a green robe, similar to that of a traditional Chinese dress, with a white shirt and pants underneath them. Her eyes were blue like lakes, and her crimson locks were adorned with a hat on top which had a golden star reading the Chinese character for dragon, "long". She was quite tall, too, being taller than Utsuho, but not by too much, and her short sleeves did well to showcase her muscles.

"Hey. I need to get into the mansion." Reimu mentioned, matter of factly.

The woman folded her arms and shook her head. "No way. Can't let you or this…" She pointed at Utsuho, "... tengu…? In."

"She's Utsuho, hell raven. She's why I'm here today."

She looked at Okuu, and unfolded one of her arms and waved at her, "I'm Meiling. Gatekeeper for the Mansion. What do you need from us?"

The miko interjected before she could reply. "We need to see Sakuya. So we need to go in."

"No can do." Meiling halted her advance, pushing her back from the gated entrance.

"Do you want to fight then? You know I can beat you in danmaku." She took out a handful of ofuda, and pointed her gohei towards the gatekeeper threateningly.

"Well. I can't let you in, so I guess we have to." She took on a fighting stance, prepping herself for the upcoming battle; though, before it could reach any sort of violent outcome, a maid suddenly appeared inbetween the two.

Her hair was silver and shined like the finest of platinum. Her deep blue dress, with a white one underneath, and alabaster apron adorned the front of it as well. She wore black stockings, and brown shoes, with knives that shone with the lethality of a tyrannosaur's teeth in her dress' lowermost pockets. She gazed upon the two with eyes as deep blue as the oceans themselves.

"It's not often you come here, Reimu. Why did I hear my name?" The newest arrival asked, seeming to pay no heed to Utsuho.

"Ah, Sakuya, I was looking for you. I need you to sew something for Utsuho, something like my miko outfit."

It was almost like this request fell on deaf ears for a few seconds, until they noticed that Reimu was actually being genuine. She leaned against the wall, and crossed her arms.

"Oh. You're being serious. I have to be a maid for Lady Remilia, so I can't spare much time. Why not ask Marisa's puppeteer friend? She doesn't have many duties."

Reimu sighed. "I did, she's busy with a project. I dunno much about magic, so it beats me on how much focus and time it takes to make a new puppet. I've already asked around a bunch, and you're my last chance."

The maid waited a for half a second before walking towards her. "I might be able to do something. But we're going to have to ask the lady." She turned her back and opened the gates. "Also, please do wash yourself somehow. Your sweat is quite potent."

Reimu was flustered by this. Was I really sweaty this entire time? Are people just being polite by not mentioning it? She just shook her head to rid herself of the thought, and brought Okuu into the mansion.

After a lot of following Sakuya, and being forcefully scrubbed down at one point by fairy maids, she'd finally found herself in front of one of the two scarlet devils.

Remila sat on a seat not too far off from her bed and next to a small study, a china tea set not far off from her, on a nearby table. Her pink gown and mob cap sitting gently on her, and the little spots of her pale blue hair crept from underneath the cap. Along with this, her skin was almost porcelain white, making her look almost doll-like.

She was reading a book, though from where they stood, it was impossible to make out what the book even looked like, much less subject matter. It seemed that the room was made to give off a threatening air, as the only window in the room, opposite the door, was a huge stained glass window, tinted blood red. It bathed the entire room and a deep crimson light, making it hard not to think of the vital liquid when entering. The room was spacious, probably being able to fit half of the Hakurei Shrine inside of it.

Reimu was ushered to a table, opposite the side the vampire was currently on, and was sat looking towards Remila. As Utsuho seated herself next to her, she noticed the maid speaking with the vampire, and they disappeared as she walked towards the two.

"Greetings Hakurei Reimu, Utsuho. It seems you want to use my maid for your services?" The Scarlet leaned her chin off to the side, and lightly resting upon her hand. Even in this lighting, her eyes pierced through the air like devilish rubies, almost glowing as her slit pupils eyed them both.

"Yeah. I need to make an outfit similar to mine for Utsuho." Reimu replied nonchalantly. "I've already asked all of the yōkai that I know who also know how to sew."

By now plates, teacups, appeared in front of them, Sakuya already pouring the red liquid into Remilia's cup.

"Well, she's _my_ maid, and _I_ get to decide what she can do." She proclaimed confidently. "And you aren't offering anything in return. I've been re–eally bored recently, so maybe we could do something fun together…?" She grinned and looked down at Reimu, stirring her tea, and taking a sip afterwards.

Reimu wasn't having any of this. She just wanted in and out, none of this weird atmosphere bullshit that this vampire kid was pulling on her. I was all kind of annoying to her, it'd taken long enough for her just to get here, and she wasn't going to wait any longer.

"So, can she make the outfit, or not?"

Remilia deflated a little, seemed like she wanted to at least threaten Reimu a little, make her a bit scared. Would've been fun to see. "Not until you amuse me." She demanded, sounding a bit annoyed.

"Can she help or not."

Remilia sighed. "Yeah, I guess" she pouted "You could have played along a little…" she pouted again, a bit quieter this time. "You owe me, though."

Reimu was surprised to see her crack so easily, maybe Sakuya wasn't actually that busy? The vampire was usually more stubborn than this… There had to be trick somewhere… or was she really just that bored? Didn't matter, wasn't her business, her business was with Utsuho. As usual, she looked oblivious to the atmosphere, but that was kind of a relief in this situation… wait owe her what?

"Sakuya." She snapped her fingers, and a short "Yes m'lady" followed from the silver maid.

The vampire walked away and grabbed her parasol, exiting out of the room. Reimu and Okuu followed suit, and then followed Sakuya as she needed to take measurements.

"Well, she was weird..." Reimu noted, sitting off to the side as she observed the measuring process Sakuya was going through.

"The Lady has been… very bored recently. Even I'm not too sure on what to do."

She started to measure Utsuho's chest area, but she pulled away from Sakuya as soon as her hand lighted brushed her third eye.

"I need to measure you, you know." Sakuya let out, a bit deadpan.

"Just don't touch my third eye" The raven retorted.

"Hey, do you want a hole for that?" Reimu piped up, having only thought of it then.

Okuu looked over at her, and she immediately softened and nodded, grinning all the while. Meanwhile, Sakuya kept herself from screaming, as that was going to be very hard to do.

"I'm going to have to measure your eye then." She said, holding back her anger.

Utsuho just looked back up at the maid, and covered the eye again. "No, you can't touch it" she replied, almost pouting.

Reimu looked at the back and forth happen for a minute, assessing what to do, before interjecting herself into the situation. "Okay, okay, just… Utsuho. Do you want me to measure it?"

The bird relaxed, her wings falling down a bit, and started to retract. So Reimu measured her Okuu's eye, and Sakuya wrote down the measurements.

After that little debacle, the two sat down, and waited for the maid to finish her work. Seemed like Utsuho was tired, and she fell asleep on her shoulder. I was cute see her like this, but man, it was like she was trying to flatten the miko, her head slowly ramming into Reimu's arm.

* * *

After presenting multiple designs to the two, they eventually settled on one. Like Reimu's miko outfit, the shoulders were exposed, though unlike hers, the top section was white, and dangled over where the skirt began. Along with this, a large section of the back was left exposed to let Utsuho's wings through, and the sleeves on her outfit were less baggy. No bow was added, and despite the ravens pleads, Sakuya wasn't going to add a cape.

"Okay. That will be all." Sakuya said, "Come back in a few days, maybe a week or so for it to be finished. I'll stop by the shrine when it's ready."

The duo thanked her, and they were on their way. She waved them bye and watched them walk out the front gate. The two waved back and replied with their own parting words.

* * *

Author's note: I completely forgot to credit my editor, shelberdingles, last chapter, sorry!


	3. Chapter 3: The First Day

Reimu woke up. Yesterday was crazy, from morn to dusk she was flying all over the place, never taking any rest stops. At least she'd gotten what she wanted to do done, all that needed to be done was to teach Utsuho how to take care of the multiple different parts of the shrine, which… might be hard, if her previous experiences with the raven's intelligence were a constant. Maybe it'd help that the clothes would arrive in a few days, let her mess up and ruin her normal clothes now, and keep the shrine outfit clean.

She got everything in place, getting out the equipment she'd need to go over with her. A sickle, broom, bucket, maybe some wood and a mallet… felt weird setting it up for someone else to do for her.

"Reimu? Oh! He—ey!" A voice from the sky yelled, the middle of the hey being drawn out until they landed. Seems that someone was here.

"Oh, hey Utsuho, ready to learn?"

She nodded, though the way she did made it seem closer to bowing multiple times rather than nodding. After, she gazed behind the miko and saw the tools of the trade, and was intensely fascinated by the sickle.

"Well I guess we're starting with that." Reimu stated.

She ushered Okuu to the lawn out front, and stared at the grass' height. She grabbed the sickle from Utsuho's hands, and did a little demonstration for her.

"Okay, so here's how you use this, as I doubt you needed to do this in hell."

She grabbed a handful of grass, and cut it to the desired height, and did it again in case the raven wasn't paying attention the first time.

"Cut it to be around the same height. It can take awhile, so don't be too worried about being too slow. I'm still kinda slow at this, anyways."

Reimu let her do that job, while she got the rest of the supplies in order. Wasn't a whole lot that needed to be taught. Maybe she could teach her how to properly pray? Couldn't hurt… maybe. Her god(dess?) was one of yōkai extermination… they were probably mad that she had them around so often…

She shook herself of her train of thought, and got back on track. She might have to make the pathway to the river more apparent, as it was kinda hidden away behind a bunch of trees. That raven was so excitable, that she doubted she'd notice it until a bit later… was probably unnecessary.

Reimu sat idly for minutes on end, following a train of thought that meandered but was brought back on track like a sleepy driver in the night. Before she knew it, Utsuho was done about a fourth of the grass.

"Hey! Nice work Utsuho!" Reimu hollered out.

The girl in question then turned around, and beamed, her wings twitching a bit. She was about to get back to work, but she spotted something behind the miko. The miko herself was puzzled by Okuu's prolonged gaze, so she turned around and–

"BOO!"

Reimu screamed and she stumbled around, clutching her chest as if she were able to clutch her heart and normalize it's beat. She glared at the human magician behind her, who was already laughing at her, having also dropped her broomstick.

"Hey Marisa." She spat out, annoyed. "Why are you here." She continued, making sound it more like a threat rather than a question.

"C'mon Rei, can't I visit my friend's house? And I see you have help around, now." The witch teased, sitting down while leaning her arms further behind her on the ground.

Even from where Reimu was, she could smell a concoction of mushrooms from Marisa's breath. Whatever they were, she was surprised to know that her stomach could handle this abuse.

Covering her nose, she retorted: "I'm teaching her how to help around with Shrine work. Not sure if I should've started with something else, though. Cutting grass takes awhile. Either way, I don't need you getting in the way."

"Aww… c'mon! How am I gonna get some tea then? I just wanna relax here, breeze doesn't get in the forest very well." She mentioned, taking off her hat and sprawling onto the shrine floor.

"Urgh, guess I can do that. Get up at least, I don't want to clean up tea off of the ground." Reimu replied, retreating into the house to make some tea.

Meanwhile, Marisa took a curious look at who was looking after the lawn instead of Reimu. As soon as she recognized her as Utsuho, she flew over, hovering above the raven.

"Hey. Why ya helping out Rei?"

"Huh? Oh! It's you! Marina!" She smiled back at 'Marina' "Haven't seen you since you and Reimu came to the reactor."

"It's Marisa, not Marina" the witch pouted a bit, crossing her arms. "But why ya helping her out?" She inquired again, turning her gaze back toward her.

"Well, she saved me from blowing up or something like that."

"Hey! I helped, why aren't you doing my chores? Huh?" Marisa retorted, feeling just a little cheated.

Utsuho just shrugged, as she looked at her work. She was about halfway through the first side of the lawn. She decided to lay down in one of the uncut parts nearby to stretch her legs a little and decompress her back.

"I just kept thinking about her ever since she saved me."

"We as in me and her." She interjected, being offended that she was left out yet again. "Also why can you remember her and not me, eh?"

Another shrug, as her seemingly everlasting smile faltered a bit, morphing into a more thoughtful expression.

"HEY MARISA, STOP DISTRACTING HER" Reimu called after Marisa, her having finished making the tea.

"I THINK SHE'S TIRED" She called back, slowly approaching the small wooden walkway around the shrine's exterior.

The miko walked over to the raven, and outstretched a hand. "Wanna take a break?"

Suddenly snapping out of her almost trance-like state of deep thought, she looked at Reimu in slight confusion.

"Huh?"

"You wanna take a break?" Her voice still stayed as calm as the first time she offered.

Okuu firmly grasped Reimu's hand, and jumped up in the air, almost dislocating her arm. After letting go, she led the two to where the tea sat, and poured them both a cup of tea while she got her next lesson in order.

After she got back, she introduced the raven to the world of replacing the water in the chōzuya.

"This is where you wash your hands and face before entering the shrine. We'll have to replace the water every few hours so it doesn't get dirty. All you have to do it clean out the bowl, and we can get the new water."

She rolled up her sleeves (as much as she could) and took a bucket, scooping up most of the water out of the fountain. She then poured it out behind the chōzuya, and into the forest surrounding them.

"You can just dump the water out into the forest." Reimu finished, handing the bucket over to the raven.

She was mostly successful, a bit of spillage here and there, but she was able to get the second large bit of water out of the bowl. Following the miko's next instructions, they cleaned out the last little bit of water, before being lead over towards the river. They refilled the bucket, having to make two trips to fully replenish the water within.

With that done, she got out the construction tools, wood and a hammer.

"Sometimes the shrine gets damaged, so we have to repair it."

She brought the raven over to a section where a strip of wood was missing. She made sure to grab her attention before doing anything else.

"I doubt you'll need to do this, but it's good to know when it happens."

She tapped a piece of wood into the open section with the hammer, trying to make sure it fit. When she was affirmed, she handed the tool to the raven, who had moderate success. The wood around was a bit dented, and she was putting to much power into her swings, but that was irreversible now. The repair was done after a few minutes, and the new piece of wood was firmly lodged into the wall.

"Wow. Up keeping the shrine seems like a lot of work, Rei." Marisa said, popping out from behind the corner.

"Y'know, you could help..." Reimu replied instantly

Marisa feigned deep thought, before shaking her head vigorously. "Nah. Plus, now I gotta do stuff, like brew potions and study spells." She replied, before taking off, tipping her hat right before.

So the two were alone again. Nothing else was really to be discussed, so she just went into it. She demonstrated sweeping the shrine grounds, and then let her finish the duties for the day. It felt a bit weird to not be doing anything, so she relegated herself to making some ofuda.

By the time Utsuho returned, she was about to finish her break from writing. Her wrist felt like it was cramping up, but the pain had subsided by now. It still felt weird having someone else doing all of the cleaning around the shrine for her, but it didn't seem like she'd be able to get used to it. She almost felt guilty.

"Hey… you done?"

Okuu fluttered her wings a bit, and nodded, brushing the last of the grass trimmings off of her arms with the tips of her wings. Once she got inside, she sat down next to Reimu, and laid on her shoulder. Reimu was caught off guard by this action, and wasn't entirely sure what to do at this point, she did just clean the outside, but, she felt a little embarrassed? Over time, she mustered enough courage to push the raven off of her.

"Aww… you were so comfy." Reuji complained, her eyes half open. Looks like she was just about to go to sleep.

"Comfy? What?" The miko sat idle while she pondered that statement for a bit, then she eventually blurted out: "Uh yeah… uh… you too…?"

The two both looked confused for a second, before Reimu was tackled into a hug that she found impossible to escape from. It wasn't a bad feeling per-say, it was just that she was unprepared for it.

After a few minutes of the hug, she noticed the raven's quite large wings. She'd never paid them much heed until now, but, it must be pretty difficult have such huge wings. She was certain tengus' wings were more than half the size of her's.

"You have pretty big wings. Don't they get on the way?"

"Not really, except for small doors and stretching. Me and Lady Satori also have to spend some time preening my wings, too. Oh!" Utsuho exclaimed, pulling out a crumpled piece of paper out of… some random location in her outfit? Wasn't really discernable.

"Lady Satori gave me this. She says you'll need it." She pushed the paper into Reimu's hands, who gave it a quick look-over.

It basically just detailed how to preen wings. Something about making sure they all line up (with a drawing add for visuals), how to remove broken feathers, and other wing care tips. The whole feather parasite thing kinda grossed the miko out, though… But she supposed they could just fly back to hell for that…

"Um… okay… I guess I should just…?"

The raven laid down on her lap, and they extended a wing out. It took a bit of time, but eventually Reimu got it down bit by bit, her being able to feel the bird starting to relax onto her lap. It was almost meditative, doing the same subtle movements over and over, checking with Satori's drawing, then continuing. She lost track of time, and before she knew it, she was done the first wing. Reaching down to ask Utsuho to roll over, she paused, hearing her slowed breath, and subtly twitching, but unmoving frame.

She didn't know what to do with her sleeping in her lap, but did turn her over slowly to get access to her other wing one she collected her thoughts. Repeating the process, the miko found herself a bit disoriented, as she was doing it from the front this time, instead of the back, but she could work it out. When she finished this, she went to rouse the raven from her sleep.

"Hey…" She muttered out, shaking her lightly. "You gonna wake up…?"

Slowly, Okuu roused from her sleep, smacking her lips and wiping the drool off of her face. She stretched, but didn't have enough clearance for her wings, so she sat up, and then felt something hit her forehead as she got up. When she investigated, she saw she hit the miko on her chin, who was clutching her jaw as she laid under the raven, unable to move from under them.

"Nice to see you up…" She mentioned, voice muffled by her hand.

"Oh! I'm so–" Utsuho rushed over to apologize, but smacked her knee against one of the table legs. She squawked out in pain, and went to hold her knee to cradle it.

"I don't think this is the best place to be right now…" Reimu mused about their current situation.

After some fumbling, the two eventually got up, if hitting the table a few more times. Once they were able to get outside, they sat, looking at the mid-afternoon sky.

"But uh… yeah. Good work today." Still felt weird to say that…

She went to pat the bird on the back, but found herself patting her on the head before she processed that she was. Seems that she enjoyed it though, so she decided that it was fine.

"So… Yeah. Come back tomorrow. Dunno how much that'll need to be taken care of, though…" Reimu admitted, scratching the back of her neck, and looking at the floorboards.

Utsuho nodded, flashing a large smile and taking off back towards former hell, leaving the miko back at her quiet shrine. All the chores were done, and the raven was gone… wasn't much that she could do…

She picked up the broom, and decided to sweep a bit more, even though there wasn't really anything to sweep. Once she got by the chōzuya again, she decided to replace the water inside whisk she was cleaning. Other than what she'd just done, she couldn't think of anything, and the sun wasn't going to set for a bit, either. Maybe she'd pray to her god more? Try to get an answer from them, or maybe check over the village?

She stood there for a good 10 minutes trying to think of what to do, weighing options, and seeing what would be best. Sukia wouldn't be here for a few days, she was probably having an oni party with her oni friends getting so drunk that their livers would combust. Marisa was either getting mushrooms or reading in the SDM's library, and Shinmyoumaru was… somewhere...

She sighed and took a lap around the village, and as nothing seemed wrong, she went back to the shrine again. Slow day today… maybe she'd just go to sleep early tonight…

Reimu went back into the shrine, and got into her futon, closing her eyes, and going to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4: Revolving Door

A week had surprisingly passed uneventfully, well away from what she'd originally expected. Reimu had really underestimated how dedicated that raven could be when it came to working. She could see why the reactor stayed so stable, and how former hell remained at it's constant, blistering temperature. That mind reader family was crazy to live there, anyone who lived there was crazy to endure such heat…

Right as she rose from her futon, morning pondering out of the way, and grogginess as gone as it'd ever be before actually walking around, a knock from the shrine's wall forced her rise to be swifter. Grabbing her gohei in case it was trouble, she opened the door.

"What do ya want?" She yawned a bit.

"Hey Reimu. I've finished the hell raven's uniform." Sakuya said, passing the outfit toward the miko.

"Oh, yeah, almost forgot about that." She took it, and retreated back into the shrine, and placed the gift onto the table.

"Ah, yes, and mistress would like to remind you to repay a favour to her." The maid said, taking out her pocket watch and checking the time. She nodded to herself, and glanced back at the recipient.

"Yeah, yeah. Okay." Reimu waved her hand dismissively, checking out the Utsuho's new Shrine wear.

"Wow, this really well done!" She admired the clothes, they looked even better than the sketches, and most of the white sections had a small red border in the inside.

"Of course, nothing less from the Scarlet Devils' chief maid." She smirked a bit, checking the time once again. "Ah, I have to leave. I must dim the blinds now that morning rises."

And with that, she disappeared. "Time powers would be really useful…" She mused, imaging situations where stopping time would've aided in solving incidents. And just as her mind wandered, the familiar sound of a very familiar excitable raven landing on the pathway towards the shrine. She got up, rubbing the pants and shirt, and waited for her to come inside.

"Reimu! How's it?"

As soon as Okuu entered, she saw the outfit, her face's features widened in joy. She threw off her clothing, and dressed herself in the uniform. Reimu had to admit, it was cute to see her in it. She approached the corvid, and pat her on the head, a habit picked up from the multiple preening sessions throughout the week.

"Alright Okuu, ready to start the day?"

She nodded as she got the tools for the day, while the miko went back into the shrine and started to brew some tea. When it was done, she sat out on the patio, and watched silently as Utsuho did her work. She smiled, thankful for being able to relax longer. She'd actually crafted a few new spellcards in this new free time she had. Still felt weird looking at someone doing her work for her, but wasn't as uncomfortable as it was the first day.

Flapping came around, but this sounded lighter than what Reimu was used to. She inspected around, before catching sight of a certain tengu journalist. She had her camera ready, and was primed to land right beside the door the inside of the shrine.

"What do you want Aya." She said, her voice coming flat and as mildly annoyed as usual.

"I heard from a certain someone that there's a good scoop here. Now… where is she…? Ah!" She flew around Utsuho and took pictures from every angle that'd be useful to her. The subject of the pictures looked around, quite confused about her current predicament.

"H-huh? Reimu? What's going on?"

"Don't worry, Okuu, she just writes the newspaper." The crimson one approached the avian duo "Could you please leave her alone? She's working."

"Ah yes, but why is she working for you?" Aya inquired, putting a hand against her hip and pointing a microphone towards the miko.

"I'll tell you, just not here." She ushered the tengu back over towards the shrine, while turning back to the other raven behind her. "Sorry, she can be… yeah"

The shrine assistant shook her head, and smiled. "Nah, it's fine. Don't worry!"

By now, Aya had already come back to the group. "I thought we were going back to the shrine?"

"*Sigh* I'll just tell you here, okay?"

As Reimu explained the situation, the reporter jotted down notes like a frenzied hyena tearing apart it's prey, only be interrupted by the occasional 'could you repeat that?' and 'hold on' pausing the conversation. When she looked satisfied, she smiled, and put down a period triumphantly.

"Thanks for the interview! Though, I do have to ask… why did you choose Reimu? Marisa helped solve the incident, too, so why not repay her as well?"

The miko looked skywards. "Huh… yeah… why not thank her?"

Utsuho found herself tongue-tied, not really knowing herself, even after it being asked a week before.

* * *

"Oh… umm… I… I don't really know…" The raven started to play with her hair a bit. She was used to being confused about stuff, but this was something she'd been thinking about a lot lately, especially since…

"Oh hey, Lady Satori?"

Her owner turned around, with her every present half closed eyes. "Yes Okuu?"

"So I'm helping Reimu, but the other girl, Marisa, I think, she asked me why I'm not helping her even though she helped me. I don't know why I didn't think of her?"

Satori sighed, and pet her pet's head, even though she had to stand on the table to do so. "I can read your mind, but, if you don't know, well, you'll have to think about it first before I'll be able to know."

It was unusual for her owner to be unable to read her mind instantly. This must've been a big thing if she had to find it out herself…

* * *

"Okuu?" Reimu looked at her, extending and arm out to her shoulder, worried.

"Oh, don't worry about it." She replied, being unusually lost in thought. She decided just to get back to work, announcing it even as her sweeping continued.

"Alright, later!" Aya called out, flying back towards yōkai mountain, undoubtedly to write an article about this

When she'd become a speck on the sky, the miko still stood in front of Utsuho, worried. "Hey if you're not feeling good, tell me. I kinda have to care for you while you're here, okay?"

She gave a determined nod, before getting back to sweeping.

Not much happened for the next two or three hours, but when noon hour came around, Reimu was snapped out of a daze as someone picked her up like a cat.

"Guess who~" The voice came out in a teasing fashion. Reimu was familiar with this voice, one that usually ended with useless conversations and teasing. She looked at the arms grabbing her to confirm her suspicions, and when her gaze landed on arms covered in white gloves that went past their elbows, they were confirmed.

"Urgh… what do you want Yukari?" She asked, already annoyed

"Aww… don't be so cold Rei… can't I check upon a friend?"

The rest of her violet draped yokai appeared from a midnight coloured tear in reality laden with red eyes. She had folding fan placed in front of her face, and looked mock-bashfully at the offending miko.

"Just tell me what you want." Reimu sighed, exasperated.

Yukari sighed, and folded her fan closed, donning a more serious look. "I was just checking to see if the balance of Gensokyo wasn't disturbed. You of all humans should know how important the balance is."

"I know, I know, but I don't see how letting someone help at the shrine is damaging to the balance." She gestured to the sleeping Okuu under the table.

"Normally, no… but this shrine is a yōkai dispelling one. Having a yōkai help out here… I'm not sure if your deity is going to be happy about this. They might even leave. Gensokyo can't have that happen." She glared down at the miko as she explained.

The subject of the glare was at a fault for words, not quite too sure what she could rebut, or even a way to talk around the subject rather than about it. Seeing as they had no way to continue the conversation, Yukari started to teleport herself away, the gap slowly travelling up her body, almost like a reverse printer.

"You can continue for now, but do be wary" She mentioned, before displaying a slightly more playful face. "And as you get older, please do learn to enjoy vaniloquence as it comes, makes for more interesting conversations."

And with that, the yōkai of boundaries had vanished, just leaving Reimu to her own thoughts. They'd occurred to her before, but, it might be time to reconsider… It would be best to tell her soon… but as she'd spent the week watching the raven doing work and caring for her, her smile never fading, it was quite an infectious feeling. It would be hard to tell her that she can't come back to the shrine, especially now that she'd gotten her new uniform.

One sigh later, and she turned around, pushing the table some to get better access to Okuu's wing, starting to preen, the thought of her not being able to keep her in the shrine much longer never leaving her mind.

* * *

As the last rays of white sunlight ended, the two occupants of the shrine awoke. They'd somehow gotten in a situation where they were sleeping one on top of the other. The miko got up first, as she was on top, and looked at Utsuho carefully, worried she'd damaged her.

"You okay?"

They let out a subtle noise of affirmation as the raven stretched her limbs, yawning all the while.

"Heh, we should get you back to Satori. She's probably worried about you." She grinned, petting her in the head.

As they egressed from inside the shrine, a faint yell came from down the steps. It was a vague flavour of familiar, but she'd have to make sure. They approached the sound, and their gaze was mimed by the other duo walking up the stairs.

"Oh, so she wasn lyin." A tall, muscular blonde woman with a red horn placed prominently on her forehead called out, accompanied by a smaller girl with orange hair and two larger horns sticking out of the sides of her head.

"He—y reimoo, he-y Oko. Didn't know you two's were workin together." The orange haired one said, in her usual half drunken slur of words. Meanwhile the taller of the two gave a small two finger salute to the two, holding a bright red dish filled sake in her other hand.

Utsuho waved back wildly, her sleeves almost falling off. "Hey Yuugi! Hey Suika!"

"Where've you been Sukia?" Reimu asked the smaller copper haired girl, of whom raised her gourd up, some sake spilling out of it.

"With Yuugi. I wenta former hell n I drank too much, and fell asleep, then I waked up and did it again, now I'm here. Cause of this newspapa"

When they were on the pathway to the shrine, Yuugi handed them the paper, the two reading it over. Seems that tengu reporter was fast to make an article about this.

After they gave it back, they were basically tackled back into the shrine, and by they time they collected themselves, they'd gotten sake pushed into their faces.

"We should have a party for this!" Yuugi half-yelled, downing her entire dish in one quick motion, while Suika did the same, just with her gourd. After this, the orange haired oni went out to do… something they weren't sure of.

"Didn't you just have a party?" Reimu asked, both confused and a bit worried for their health and her own.

"Yeah? So?" Yuugi brushed off the statement, pouring her and Utsuho another glass of sake.

As the two oni partied around, and giving drinks to the other two in the shrine, more visitors came by.

Marisa came by, and only a few minutes of being there, she was already completely drunk, stumbling around, and smashing her face into trees trying to fly while drunk.

The second to come was more modest, Yukari only took a few sips every once in awhile, and her shikigami were brought along as well. In order to try and set a good example for her shikigami, Chen (who also belonged to Yukari), Ran decided to abstain from drinking anything. It didn't seem like that mattered, though, as that little cat girl was chasing Marisa around.

She lost track of who came in when Aya arrived to give her the newspaper she'd written just that day, but seemed like she completely forgot to do that when she saw the amount of alcohol going around and decided to get her fair share of it. She was starting to wonder why she'd become a magnet for all of the alcoholic ones in gensokyo.

Only after taking a break and finding an area dark and remote enough was she able to look at the impromptu party going on. She silently hoped everyone would exit the premises soon, so that she could get to sleep, and hopefully would be able to sleep past the huge musk of ethanol wafting through the air.

After giving the crowd a good looking over was when she noticed how much Utsuho was drinking, and how little the sake being passed around affected her. It looked like she was having fun, and talking to the yōkai and few humans around. Reimu focused on the raven's smile. It looked so pure, honest, she'd doubt anyone would be able to mimic such concentrated happiness in just their smile.

Well, if Utsuho was smiling, maybe it didn't matter how long the party lasted.


	5. Chapter 5: Stormy Brains

She twiddled her fingers, interlocking them as her mind raced. Her eyes closed as she sighed, sitting upright and furrowing her brow.

"Pache, what do you think?" Remilia asked, now stretching.

Patchouli looked shrugged, looking down at a book, and writing down a new incantation she'd just discovered.

The magician was short, and lanky, bordering on bony. Her purple hair fell down past her lower spine, and locks of hair on either sides of her head, adorned with magenta and blue bows tied near their ends. She had a pink mop hat on, and a large, billowing night gown of the same colour, which ended in frills.

"Pache, come on, Sakuya has yet to have given me any ideas, and I am not certain on how useful Meiling would be in this predicament…" Her red eyes zoned out on the table below her, still thinking of compensation for using her maid.

This had to be good… Reimu had somehow beaten her, even as the very twines of fate could be manipulated by her hand. That damned miko was able to surpass her, and she could never forget the emotions she fet that day… How surprised she was, and the shame of being defeated. Though, as time went on these mutated… the vampire didn't know when they shifted but ever since they did…

Once Remi noticed where her train of thought was going, she could start working on suppressing herself, but the redness in her face would be much more difficult to stop, and would remind her of these sentiments later.

"Maybe you could have her work for you." Patchouli gave as a belated response, looking back over at what she used for the incantation.

 _"Working for me?"_ She wondered. The first day would be tough for her… but as she was trained by Sakuya, she'd become better and better at her job. And once she finds a friendship in her, she'll have no reason to stop being a maid in the mansion. Then she could strike, sometimes asking to meet with her, and as Reimu became closer with her, they could talk for longer. One day she'll make her move, and then after they kiss…

The mage across the table looked at her vampire friend, a bit worried at how scarlet she'd become, and the minor but audible giggles she'd let out every once in awhile. She hoped someone would stop whatever Remilia was thinking, and, conveniently, Meiling came into the library.

"Hey, Patchouli, you got any more of those action books?" The Crimson haired girl came running in, a comic of indiscernible nature and origin in her hand.

This snapped the vampire out of her daze, her back going completely erect with shock.

"Oh, hello mistress, I didn't see you there. Am I interrupting anything?" The gatekeeper wondered, a bit worried.

"No. I'll get you the next few volumes after I'm done." The purple mage was just about done when she stated this, then rereading to see if she missed anything.

"So, mistress, mind if I ask you why you're here?" Meiling asked, grabbing the back of the chair, and kneeling down to meet Remilia's face.

"O-oh!" The Scarlet Devil cleared her throat and regained her air of elegance and intimidation. "I am just thinking of which favour I must ask of the Hakurei miko, as she has used my maid for her own gain."

As she waited for the librarian to return with the books, she entertained the question. "I think the favour should be something you can't get from her usually, and isn't too much to ask for, you know?"

Remilia considered this, once again thinking of the possibilities behind it. Anywhere from cleaning the library, to giving Remilia a massage. She wasn't exactly sure how much of her body she'd be able to get Reimu to massage, but any amount would do. Blood might be a good way to get back at the miko as well, but, she probably had some weird anti-yokai enchantment on her blood.

While the vampire was busy fantasizing about the types of situations she'd get Reimu in, the others struck up a conversation.

"So, Patchouli, did you see the outfit Sakuya made a few weeks ago? I think it was for… U-tsu-ho? I think that's what her name was. Is that why Remilia wants to get back at her?"

The magician, looked up at the gatekeeper, possibly inquisitive, though she just looked kinda tired.

"Is that where she's been?"

"Did you really not know?" Meiling sighed "You really need to get out more. Maybe a 1km jog? Shouldn't be too hard."

The mage out her hands up defensively, shaking them about. After another exhale from the crimson haired one, yet another crimson haired being walked on the scene, plopping down an armful of magic related books.

This new arrival was dressed in a black coat that ended at her shoulders, but draped down to her legs. Two white stripes adorned the bottom of the cloak, and the back of the cloak had a small cape on it. She had cloth tied around her waist, it falling down halfway, and having a white pattern in the middle. Her torso also had a white shirt underneath her cloak, and the sides of her head had bat wings sprouting from it.

"A week on an outfit? Still seems excessive." She said.

"Oh, thanks Koakuma." The violet haired one thanked.

"Why would Reimu want Sakuya to sew her an outfit? I don't get it." Koakuma mused

"Oh, no, she made it for Utsuho" The gatekeeper specified.

"Oh. That makes more sense. She probably made as a gift to her love or something." The little devil explained, as if she'd figured out the entire situation.

As the three carried on their little conversation, they failed to notice that Remilia stared at them when they mentioned Reimu loving someone. Her face crinkled into a scowl as she looked off into the distance.

 _"I'm going to have to act quickly…"_

* * *

"Oh, uh… hey Okuu. I- um. We don't really have any chores to do… so… I don't think you need to be here today…" The miko said, seeming as though she were unsure about something.

That same day, Utsuho laid in her room, there thinking about her feelings. She wasn't entirely able to get why she always felt especially happy when she was around Reimu. It was nice to help repay her for keeping her from doing anything brash with her fusion power. It was troubling that not even Lady Satori was able to tell her why she felt this way. She was always able to help focus her mind when it was cluttered.

"Hey, Okuu?" Rin came in "Satori says you should eat. Hard to think when you're hungry, apparently." The cat shrugged, waiting for her friend to rise.

She did, and they walked out to the table, and on it was a bowl of freshly caught fish, seeds, and even a bit of mochi, a very rare sight to her, and what she knew she was going to go for first.

"You've been thinking a lot about this, Okuu." Satori stated "Is it really troubling you this much?"

Utsuho nodded, sitting down, and picking up the food on the table. "I don't know why, though. I just feel like I need to think about this…"

Her owner, in return, nodded. "All I know is you have strong feelings, that's all"

 _"But what kind of feelings?"_ the raven asked herself. She racked her head around, trying to think faster, better, just help her get to the answer somehow. She always felt happy around her, like she was around Orin or Lady Satori…

She nibbled on some mochi in front of her, not being able to understand her emotions.

"Maybe it's family? Maybe she became such a good friend that you see her as family." Satori inquired, she herself trying to understand the raven's thoughts. She wasn't always the best with complex emotions.

"Maybe we should ask around?" Orin suggested.

The corvid in the room shook her head. Seems she wanted to keep this an internal affair. The duo respected this wish, and whenever someone had an idea, Satori would be the one to advocate for, or a against the idea.

For maybe 20 Minutes this dragged on, until the mind reader herself thought of possible solution.

"Why don't you tell us what you like about her? Maybe that'll make it more clear to us." She suggested, the cat to her side nodded in approval.

Okuu waited for a bit, but decided it'd be best to just blurt out what she was thinking about the miko without much forethought.

"Hmm… she… she's really nice to me. She's really relaxed around me, and she doesn't find my fusion powers scary. She's helped me a lot, too. And she's really good at petting and preening. She has a nice smile, and I want to hug her and I want to be close to her. Stuff like that."

Silence once again. The bird started to feel a bit embarrassed and uncomfortable. As the two talked to eachother unconsciously. They gave her a knowing smile, causing her to shrink a bit, and start to blush.

"W-what?" She squeaked out.

* * *

Reimu sighed, sipping her tea. After almost a month of having Utsuho around, it felt lonely without her there. Everything was done, and there was nothing to do, so all she could think of doing letting the day pass her by as she felt the morning rays of sun intensify into the noon's warmth.

 _"This was as good a time as any to replace the water…"_ She thought, rising to do the chore. Bizarrely, she found it kind of unnatural for her to do the chores again, but, If it meant keeping the balance in Gensokyo, she'd just have to get used to it again. It was wrong to have yet more yokai come to visit her shrine and stay for such long stretches of time. She didn't even want to entertain the notion of how angry her deity was toward her. Plus, Okuu had already repaid her debt, right?

After she'd finished, she was still unable to take her mind off of the time they'd spent together. Even if she felt guilty that she'd been angering the Hakurei god over the month, she wasn't entirely sure if the guilt of turning the raven away was equal,Now that she had time alone to dwell on the notion, she'd noticed that she had some pretty powerful feelings attached to Ooku. The more the miko dug into those feelings, the more it dawned on her, and the more worried she'd became about the future of the shrine.

She was going to have to consult Yukari on this somehow, as much as she hated that she'd have to talk to that meddlesome yokai.

Almost as if on cue, she could feel the presence of a certain violet draped yokai opening a gap nearby.

"You called?" She called out.

They walked into the shrine, sitting on opposing sides of the centre table.

"Why did you want to talk to me? Must be important to call upon your arch-nemesis…" She grinned, lowering her fan so Reimu could see it clearly.

"I… I think I'm in love." Reimu shifted, her fame shrinking into herself, and looking away a bit uncomfortably.

"So? It's not like It's against shrine maiden rules. Unless…" The barrier yokai raised her eyebrow, almost glaring at her. "Is–"

"It's Utsuho." She blurted out, shivering as if caught in a blizzard. "I-I don't know… c-can I still be a miko?"

An eerie silence filled the room, not even the sounds of animals, chatter of the village, or gusts of wind were present. This made the snapping close of the Yakumo's fan even more startling, enough for the miko the jump back a little.

"Suika lives here from time to time, and she's done nothing about that. Shinmyoumaru comes around every once in awhile as well."

When Reimu gained enough courage to look at Yukari, she once again saw her piercing, purple eyes.

"It might be okay. But don't blame me if she leaves, or strips you of your miko status."

Reimu sat in silence once again even after the gappy one left. Right as the daylight sunk under, and the stars above became visible. The wind was cold, and refreshing me and the glow of the village lights started to emanate from down her shrine's steps. she'd decided what she was going to do the next day.

She needed to talk to Okuu about something.

* * *

Sorry for the delay! I got caught up with school, so it took me like a month before I could write and re-read it a couple times. Sorry if there's still a few mistakes, but I should be able to post on a more regular schedule now!


	6. Chapter 6: Missing Person

Utsuho landed down at the familiar shrine, properly dressed in her miko outfit. She looked around for Reimu, normally finding the girl sleeping or making tea, but instead, she found a crack in the wall and Sukia. The oni reeked of week's worth of sake, forcing her to plug her nose.

"Where's Reimu?" She asked, toward nobody in particular.

She looked everywhere, under the table, the mats, inside Suika's mouth, cupboards, then eventually deciding to look outside, calling her name all the while. She eventually attracted enough attention to gather the curiosity of a certain monochrome magician.

"He–y, Reimu not here?"

She shook her head, and looked at Marisa pleadingly.

"Marisa! Help me find her, please!"

She breathed out a tiny chuckle "Hey, you remembered my name." She replied, a little grin on her face. She pondered places she'd be out so early with, and her mind immediately went to Yukari snatching her away to do… something. She hadn't thought about it before, but now that she thought about it… she worried for the miko's safety.

"Uhh… Yukari's probably got her doing stuff. Should just wait here." She walked over to the porch of the shrine, and sat down, leaning on the wall and propping her legs up on her floating broom.

Utsuho was noticeably worried, but by seeing how relaxed the little human was, she tried to keep herself occupied by her other duties, though not knowing exactly what to do with the crack in the wall. It wasn't like she could just replace the wall entirely. The fracture intensified her worry, as she noticed the stained spots of red on it.

She bolted out to the magician, trying to communicate to her what she'd just seen. All the raven was able to muster were gasps, caws, and squawks of worry.

"Woah, woah. You alright?"

Marisa reacted, jumping up and trying to grab the bird as she flailed about. She'd managed to bear-hug her, repeating "Calm! Calm!" to them. This proved to be difficult, as the size difference made the raven hard to handle, though after a few minutes, she did calm down.

"Y-you're a lot more muscular than I thought…" Marisa noted, panting a little bit "And heavier too…" she muttered during a minor heave.

"Th-there's blood! On the wall!" The raven shouted, her chest's crystal glowing a magnificent crimson.

The magician's eyes widened, and she bolted into the room. She searched around, and then found the crack in the wall. Though relieved to see that it was at most, a drop or two of blood, it did make her think… Reimu didn't exactly have the time to react to Yukari whenever she snatched her away. This might be worth investigating.

"Well…" she said, dragging the last syllable so she could think _"maybe she went out to the market…? No, no, she'd be back by now…"_

"She might be off solving an incident. She's usually either the first or last to detect 'em" She took a second to ponder, putting finger to chin. "We could just ask the Hakurei god where Reimu is."

She flicked her some yen and motioned for her to pray to the god, and so, she did.

 _"Umm… hello. I'm Reiuji Utsuho. I've been working at your shrine and… Please, please tell me where Reimu is. I'm worried and I want to know if she's okay."_

...

 _"Please… I want to know she's okay. I haven't even told her… that I love her..."_ She blushed at that statement, collapsing into herself a little bit.

…

 _"Please?"_

…

Looking quite disappointed, the witch didn't need to ask if they'd responded, and patted her on the back.

"I think if anyone knows where someone is, it's probably Aya. She's got her tengu nose in everything. All we gotta do is find her…"

Her broom shot into her hand, then she mounted the broom, rocketing off into the distance.

* * *

It took awhile, but they managed to find her. They had to chase after her, as she flew off at the sight of them, forcing the two to corner her and somehow restrain her. This wasn't an easy task, but it seemed that the both of them were faster than she'd thought.

"Oi, oi, oi!" The tengu yelled out. "What did I do wrong?" She inquired, spasming her body around in attempts to escape.

"Nothing! Nothing! We just wanted to know if you saw someone." The monochrome one said, floating in front of her. _"At least I'm not the one grabbing the struggling bird this time."_

"Then why's she still clamping onto me!?" She retorted, struggling harder.

Okuu let her go, allowing Aya to brush herself off and re-adjust her feathers. After brushing herself off, she looked at the duo.

"So, who's this missing person?" She asked half-heartedly, crossing her arms.

"Reimu." They replied simultaneously.

She perked up at this. "No… I haven't… _BUT_ this is good article material…" She smirked "I'm going to follow you two!" She shouted triumphantly, pointing at them almost accusingly.

They looked at eachother for awhile, before the shrine duo shrugged. "Sure?" They responded as they lazily flew off.

"I guess we should check at Alice's next. If she went through the woods, she or one of her dolls would've seen her."

* * *

It wasn't long before the trio landed in front of the seamstress' door, and even less time for Marisa to smash her hand against the cottage door thrice and open it before actually waiting to get a response. "Yo, Alice!"

"Marisa! How many times have I told you to _wait_ for me to let you in!? I swear, you're going to break my door someday." Alice walked out of her living room, ready to scold the unruly magician further, but then she eyed the corvid duo outside.

"Oh! Utsuho! Aya. What are you doing here?"

They all went to reply at once, but Marisa managed to speak first. "Reimu wasn't at the shrine today. Y'know where she is?"

She thought about it. "Give me a second, I'll see if any of my dolls have seen her. Come inside Meanwhile, I'll get you all some tea."

When they got inside, they could see shelves upon shelves dolls all sat upon them, and many of them either having simple blue or black dresses. The ones with the black dresses seemed to be adorned with weaponry, and the ones in the blue dresses had miscellaneous items, varying from razors to needles and cloth. Aya, of course took pictures of everything, including the doll master herself.

Most of this didn't really bother the other two, but the monochrome magician looked particularly intrigued by the doll sat at the table. This doll had copper hair, and a light blue dress. The dress' sleeves were poofy, and were tied around the doll's wrists by bows. She also appeared to be wearing boots not dissimilar to her creator's.

"Hey, who's this Alice?" Marisa asked, getting in close to the doll, who tilted her head in return.

"Ah, that's one of my new doll classes. She's one of my first two 'Atlantis' dolls. She can make water and fire so I don't need to cook or boil tea all the time." She responded, motioning for the doll to pour a small stream of scalding water into the teapot. It overflowed a tiny bit, spilling onto the table cloth.

"I'm still getting the hang of them…" she added, flush and slightly embarrassed; although, Marisa seemed impressed by this, quelling her embarrassment a little.

The reporter looked amused. "These are cute. Kinda makes me want one. Ever thought of making a tengu one?" She suggested.

The magician pondered this, and poured some of the water out into an unused teacup, before adding some tea leaves to the pot and stirring.

Over the next while, Alice's attention was all foucused squarely onto her dolls, gathering their information. She was seemingly unreactive to any outside stimuli, even when her fellow magician called for her name.

"Welp, she's out." The stout witch noted, turning her attention to the now emptied tea pot, then to the birds. Okuu in particular looked the most worried, fidgeting, darting her eyes back and forth and playing with her feathers nervously.

"You seem pretty worried." Aya noted "more worried than Marisa. You know something we don't about her?" She inquired, extracting a notebook.

The hell raven had become the centre of attention, making her shuffle a little in embarrassment. She also started to feel a pressure to tell them, but felt almost too embarrassed to tell them.

"Is it really that embarrassing? Oooh I wanna know now!" Marisa replied, excitedly.

They sat in silence, waiting for her answer, before she responded, but in an inaudible voice. The duo asked her to repeat herself.

"I… I'm in love with her…" she restated, using her wings to cover her face.

A chorus of 'awww's followed, one even coming from Alice, of whom everyone looked at before she went back to talking to her dolls.

"When did this come about?" The duo asked in unison.

"W-well… s-she's gentle, and comforting, she's not scared of me…" she went on, a little hesitant with rattling off her list of reasons to a different crowd.

After she'd finished, the reporter closed her notebook, and looked back at her fellow crow, putting a hand to her shoulder.

"Well, I'll be sure to help you the best I can. I'm a sucker for love stories after all." She beamed, making Okuu feel more at ease. The moment was interrupted though, as Alice looked ready to answer the trio's initial question.

"They haven't seen anything. She must be somewhere else." She told them, disappointed.

The trio sighed, and got up, Utsuho lost in thought as she wondered where she might be. She was suddenly pat on the back by the puppeteer, who looked at her determined. "If you need help, I'll help you find her."

Meanwhile, tengu looked pensive. "I've heard of many humans going missing in the bamboo forest, so maybe the incident is in there?" She suggested, tea in hand.

They gave a nod of approval, as Marisa went to open the door.

Instead of getting outside, she collided with some sort of fleshy obelisk. She looked up at the object, and saw that it was the Scarlet Devil's maid.

"This would've been easier you just stayed at the shrine, you know? Could've saved me some flying about." She scolded them, as if they knew of her plans.

"Anyways, I need your help."

And with that, the group disappeared in an instant.

* * *

 _Author's note:_

Sorry for the delay! Originally this chapter was going to have another chapter accompanying it which detailed the events at the mansion, but I decided against it and scrapped that chapter. Otherwise, it's really just me forgetting to pick this story back up and focusing on school. Should be updating again soon!


	7. Chapter 7: Improptu Ambulence

Two mages, two crows, and a maid all suddenly appeared at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The maid that'd taken them there waited for the duo of duos to regain their balance. Once they did, she started to explain why she brought them.

"The mistress has Reimu, and I cannot bring myself to harm her. Let me lead you towards her, as so you may take the brunt of her ire." Sakuya told them, her pompous deamor regained.

Marisa gave her a strange look. "Why can't ya just bring us to her?"

"Because carrying you all is a burden. Aya and Utsuho are quite weighty, and it hurts my back to carry them." She replied, the reporter looking at herself then back up at the silver one.

"What d'you mean _'weighty!?'_ " She protested, garnering a little giggle from Sakuya.

"Marisa was quite easy to hold. 'Twas almost like carrying the mistress." She continued, much to the annoyance of the stout witch.

"But where is she?" Utsuho interjected, worry plastered on her face.

"As I stated, follow me." The maid replied, already walking in the direction.

Whilst following her, they noticed that she was less than subtly showing off the mansion, bragging about her feats when it came to cleaning and the organization of the fairies and hobgoblins, a few of which offered the quintet pastries. Throughout this tour, the hell raven became increasingly restless, starting to fly ahead of the group, only to rejoin them at later times sporadically.

"I know ya wanna find her quicker, but gettin lost ain't the answer." Marisa reassured her, trying to keep her from flying away from her. In return, she started to play with her hair, feathers, and clothing, chattering her teeth too.

They eventually got to the room, and as they approached, they could hear minor sucking and licking noises from within, mildly disturbing them all.

"Sakuya? Is that you?" Remilia called out from inside.

The two twos barged in, Alice summoning an Atlantis doll and spraying Remilia on the arm with hot water, turning it into wet ash. The vampire held her arm stump and yelled.

"What the hell!? Sakuya! Did you bring them?" She glared, looking at the maid with predatory eyes. They started to sweat a little, and did her best innocent smile, which… wasn't close to convincing.

"O-of course not, mistress." She reassured, eliciting a sigh from her master.

"Well, I needed your help anyways. Reimu won't stop bleeding. Her blood's like watery or something?"

All eyes turned to Reimu. They already knew she'd been beaten, but they never anticipated the fact that she been drained of a significant amount of blood. Immediately after, the hell raven charged at the vampire, easily shoving her onto the wall. Remilia could feel her shoulders slowly turning to ash as the corvid's fusion energy radiated across her body.

"What did you do!?" Utsuho shouted, feeling angry for the first time since she got her powers.

"Nothing! Nothing!" She pleaded, frantically trying to push the raven off. "I just sucked some of her blood and it won't stop coming out!"

And with that, she went nuclear. Her third eye glowed. The pupil pointed toward the Scarlet Devil, and it charged up with energy.

Everything turned into a blinding light.

When the light cleared, the entire room had been atomized, the only traces being the legs of a bed, and the bare floor. Unbeknownst to everyone else, Sakuya had already left, giving them a note and Reimu.

"Sorry. The mistress' state is critical. I cannot help you bring Reimu back

Sakuya"

"Damnit!" Marisa exclaimed, keeping the miko steady on her back. She could feel her friend's blood trickling down onto her neck and staining her clothes. The crimson leaking from her was hauntingly watery, and the same could be said about her increasingly pale skin.

Adrenaline shot through the witch, and she took the bow off her hat, and tied it lightly around her neck, hoping that it'd stop some of the bleeding. She looked at Alice, of whom was shaken with fear, and grabbed her by the wrist.

"Can you get some dolls to help and carry her?" She urged.

"I only have this Atlantis doll, no-one else." The puppeteer replied. "The most I can do right now hope a healing spell would work, but I'm not the best at them…"

She laid her hands on girl, trying her best to heal her wounds. It worked, sort of. Her hands were too shaky, and her voice trembled too much for her to properly treat her wounds.

Marisa nodded, and looked around to the others. "Uhh… Aya! Aya. C-can you help us find the way to a hospital?"

She saluted, and shot up into the air, bolting off to find Reimu aid.

The magician looked for someone else, but already felt the measly weight of her friend lifted off her shoulders. "Don't worry, I'll carry her." Utsuho beamed "I'll keep her warm."

She silently thanked her, and waited impatiently for the tengu to return. Once she did, they all followed, trying to go as quickly as possible. They obviously couldn't match Aya's speed, so she tried her best to lower her pace to theirs.

As they flew across sky, Okuu could feel the shrine maiden's body's temperature dropping rapidly, motivating her to fly faster than usual, and allowing herself to be closer on par with Aya's regular speed.

The sun faded from the sky, bathing it in a pale orange hue; however, this caused them difficulty, as the sun was pointed directly into their eyes. Every so often they'd have to stop, just to make sure they were still on course and to rest their eyes.

During one of these brief moments of respite, the raven could see a familiar sight: Yamane flying towards her. All she could make out was her blonde hair and her poofy brown dress that looked like a tarantula's thorax.

"Hey Utsuho, ya got a treat I see." The arachnid said, hovering close to Reimu's body.

"N-no! Why would say that?" She replied, looking almost horrified. She hugged the body closer to her own, now aware of it's increasing lightness.

"Well, just askin' cause looks like yer holdin a corpse there." Yamane replied matter-of-factly. "Looks pretty fresh, too."

Tears welled up in her eyes as she heard the tengu state that it was a straight shot from their current position, and saw the three fly off before following. The spider was left there, wondering to what she'd said wrong.

Utsuho flew faster than she'd even done before, and she was increasingly aware of it. Her muscles ached immensely, her breathing was so strained that she was wheezing, and her vision blurred to the point she wasn't entirely sure where she was going.

Then suddenly, she started to fall.

She felt an intense, burning pain in her left wing, as it cramped and refused to move any longer. She struggled and failed to make it flap once again, but it refused. Seeing as she couldn't do anything else for Reimu, she shielded her with her wings and body, hoping to save her from possible future harm

The few bamboo she managed to hit did slightly soften the blow, it didn't change the fact that she landed directly on one of her wings, leaving it a mangled mess and entirely unfit for flying. In addition to this, she couldn't move her arm adjectent the wing either, trying to lift it, but getting no response.

Through the searing pain, she looked down at Reimu, and her tears threatened to escape. She looked upon the girl's body. The skin was almost translucent.

"I'm sorry Okuu." a familiar voice told her, placing her hand on her shoulder.

"Please no…"

She looked behind her, and saw Rin, with her wheelbarrow.

Faintly off in the distance, she could hear someone yell "There they are!" But it didn't matter.

"Don't leave me…" Utsuho started to bawl, holding what remained of the miko close to her.

Both daylight and Reimu clutching onto the last grips on the light that they could muster. Only a sliver of it was left as the pale pink and crimson sky started to surrender to the stars of the heavens behind them.


	8. Chapter 8: No Return

"Does that feel better?"

Utsuho unfurled her wing, nodding in response. Until now it'd been heavily wrapped, so it felt nice to finally move it.

"No heavy flying for a few days, even if your bones are set, they still need to heal, so take it easy."

The raven looked over at the lady helping her. She had long purple hair, and what looked to be rabbit ears on her head; however, they looked like they'd been injected into her skull. She had red irises, and many scars on her face. She also wore a black suit and a pale red skirt, a small bunny tail poking out from underneath it. Even under the rabbit's clothing, she could tell that they had many more scars, just judging by her legs and hands. She couldn't quite pin down the sound of their voice… but it was deep, and rough around the edges.

"Oh, we never formally introduced ourselves, did we?" She outstretched a hand. "I'm doctor Reisen U. Inaba, I'm training with our head doctor. Speaking of which, I'll go check if she needs any assistance."

She spedwalked from the room, and disappeared from sight. Awaiting her return, the raven's mind wandered. She remembered Yamane's comments, and seeing Reimu's body.

She gripped her skirt tightly, trying not to cry again. This didn't seem to work, as she saw darkened patches where her tears fell on her clothes. She sniffled to herself silently, only interrupted when the purple rabbit came back in.

"Doctor Yagokoro would like to see you." She paused for a moment. "Would you like some time to calm down?" She offered, trying to sound comforting.

The corvid shook her head, as Reisen led the way. It was a relatively short walk, and when they got there, she could seen Reimu within the confines of the room. The miko was looking out the window, gazing mindlessly tward the morning pastels.

* * *

Reimu awoke. She reeled from the bright lights, eyes refusing to stay open. She tried to block out the harsh, white light with hands, but it felt a dull, very spread out pain. Her entire body ached, and she had a hard time really feeling her body. Furthermore, she felt weak, very weak.

"Ah, So you've awoken. I thought you were dead there for awhile." Someone mentioned.

The miko took the arduous task of craning her head over to see the voice, and saw Eirin Yagokoro. She had a long, almost masculine face, with long white hair that was styled into a braid. She wore a dress that was split vertically into dark blue and blood red, but swapped after the dress got past her waist. Her entire build was quite tall and lanky, and all her features looked somewhat sharp.

"What happened…?" Reimu strained, looking at all of the machines attached to her. She had a bunch of suspended packs of what said 'blood' on them attached to her arm, and another with clear liquid inside it. Just beside she was also hooked up to a large metallic box with a black front. The green line beeped as it ascended and descended to what felt like her heartbeat.

"A vampire bit you. Probably Remilia. You were brought here in a hurry. You were practically dead by the time you got here. Now you're alive and awake. Lunarian medicine is great, huh?" She spoke as if reading off a grocery list, getting back to her work almost immediately after.

She took time to remember what brought her here, watching as the sun rose up. It didn't take long for it all to come back to her. The small errands around that mansion, and her ineptitude at the tasks. Eventually, she was brought to a one-on-one 'tea-time' with Remilia, then she got bitten, and she found she couldn't use any of her spellcards. She couldn't really remember anything that happened after that.

She was so lost in thought that she couldn't even hear the people talking behind, only taking notice to the company in the room until they tackled her into a hug.

Utsuho hugged her like her life depended on it. She always enjoyed hugs from the raven, but she was increasingly aware that they were crying. She looked down at Okuu's face, only to see that their eyes were red and puffy from crying.

"I-I thought you died…" Utsuho said, trying to talk as clearly as she could, despite her sobs. She only held tighter afterwards, squeezing her like toothpaste.

"I'm glad I have someone as great as you looking out for me then." Reimu replied, trying to comfort her, though having difficulties speaking. This elicited a blush from her corvid friend, causing her to turn away as well.

"Reimu… I…" She said, still not looking at the miko. They waited for a few moments, before continuing on.

"I… love you." She confessed, looking at her shyly.

Reimu cooed out a little "Aww" before lifting her hand to caress the raven's cheek. It felt unexpectedly heavy, but she decided to pay it no mind.

"That's good."

"Why?" Okuu questioned.

"I love you too." She responded, leaning towards the hell raven for a kiss.

"I would not do that." Eirin interjected. "She has stomach ulcers right now. I don't want her to possibly spread them to you too."

The couple looked back into the room behind them, and saw basically everyone looking at them. They turned as red as garnets, and the sentiment was only heightened by Marisa giving a thumbs up to the miko.

"Anyways" Eirin continued, "you are going to have to say here for about an hour or two more as we close up your ulcers. More importantly, however, care. You lost almost all of your blood, your muscles will be weak, and some of your nerves will be slow. So you need to find someone to take care of you."

She put her… slab that had light coming out of it… back on her desk and seemed to pull up some sort of diagrams from thin air. It looked a bit like magic. "We shall get to that after your surgery though."

Before anyone got prepared to do anything, a tear in reality made itself apparent. As the tear widened, it let off a disturbing wet noise, which could only be equated to rubbing one's eyeball but multiplied by dozens of decibels. As it opened, it revealed hundreds of red eyes which stared into the room, and out of it, stepped out Yukari Yakumo.

"Don't say I didn't warn you before, but the Hakurei goddess has left the shrine."

Reimu's face dropped, stunned.

"Don't worry, I heard the entire conversation. I'm going to give you until your recovery period ends for you to choose a new deity to enshrine, lest I take… drastic measures to return balance to Gensokyo. In the meantime, you're not allowed to set foot near the shrine."

Reimu was at a loss for words, and the room became deathly silent, the only soundtrack being a light breeze the windows let through.

"I-I…" the former miko tried to speak up.

"I'm not too sure how to think of you right now, Reimu." Yukari cut her off, closing her fan and egresssing back into her ocular realm.

Not even the wind's minor music came into the room, as for a few moments, wasn't entirely sure what to do. The first one to mobilise was Reisen, who closed the window, and asked Utsuho if she could leave the room again as they performed the operation. She complied and everyone else took her lead, leaving only the two doctors and the weakened vagabond in the room, of whom was visibly shaken.

"Come, look into my eyes." The purple rabbit told her, grabbing Reimu's face in order to make her look into her eyes.

They seemed to be something off about the junior doctor's eyes, but Reimu couldn't place it, as eventually, she felt very calm, like waves of relaxation were being sent into her. It didn't take long for her to lose consciousness.

* * *

The group outside sat in silence. Reimu had been in there for half an hour already, and it didn't seem like she was going to come out soon. Yukari's words echoed like a scar on their minds.

"Is she going to be okay?" Alice was the first to speak up. "She's lived her entire life serving the shrine. So what's she to do now?"

"She's a toughie, I doubt this'll be too hard for her to overcome… right?" Marisa replied, almost as if she were trying to convince herself rather than the others.

While the others had splatterings of a feeble conversation, Utsuho sat mostly in silence. She kept asking herself _"Did I cause this? Would've it been better for me not to have met her? Is she better without me?"_

Satori was sat next to her, listening to everyone's doubts silently. The only ones who she could really address were Ooku's thoughts, as she was too emotionally distant from the others.

"I doubt Reimu will think that you're the cause of this. You two will be fine." She rubbed the corvid's shoulder. "She'll be happy to see you."

This gave the hell raven some solace, but it didn't rid her of the doubts she still had in her mind.

The scene was interrupted as everyone heard a wheelchair advancing into the room. They expected to see Reimu, but were all disappointed when they saw it was just Sakuya pushing Remilia.

"I sense that there is nary a person happy to see me." Remilia stated, not entirely sure as her eyes were wrapped in a bandage. Most of her body was wrapped in bandage. About half of her was missing, there were the stubs that remained of her arms, the tops of her shoulders had gauges in them, her legs were gone outright, and a and parts of her neck had finger shaped indents.

After being examined, they looked back at the solar bird, in disbelief that she caused most of the damage to the vampire.

"The mistress expresses remorse for what she did to the Hakurei shrine maiden, and would like to offer my services as repentance for her actions." Sakuya told them, with all the grandeur of her master.

The maid pushed Remilia toward Utsuho, and offered her a card for Sakuya's services.

"Um… Th-thanks." The bird replied, eliciting a tiny recoil from the countess.

"Y-yes! Anything to apologize for my previous actions." The countess continued, voice a little shaky.

And then the two went off, back to their mansion.

Once they were sure the duo went off, they started to ponder.

"Yo… is Remilia gonna be okay?" Marisa asked, looking a little queasy.

"I… think so. I believe vampires have a very similar rate of healing to demons, and demons heal fast, right Satori?" Alice responded, turning only her eyes to the the triclops.

"Hmm… yes, if memory serves correct. I don't spend much time around any of the demons except for miss Hoshiguma. Even then I don't watch her fight." Satori noted, sounding close to monotone.

"Guess it makes sense that Utsuho would hurt 'er so badly." The stout magician added on, leaning back into her seat. "She's like a sun bird, righ?"

"Yeah, I'm a yagatar… yatagra… yatgara…"

" _Yatagarasu_." The satori corrected, so they wouldn't have to endure the raven's multitudes of attempts.

"Makes sense." The magicians noted, letting the room return to silence for longer than what they'd hoped for her operation to take. They could hear the light metallic clangings and the repetitive beeps of the machinery inside, but hadn't a clue what they entailed, each coming up with equally gruesome pictures in their minds. All came to a stop as these noises too stopped. With bated breaths they looked down the hallway, waiting to see the girl.

Before they knew it, Reimu had returned, and Utsuho was the first to approach her, instantly hugging her.

"Judging by miss Yakumo's statements from before… she will need both housing and care. Are any of you willing to take her, or shall we keep her in the hospital?" Eirin asked the group.

The raven piped up. "Oh! Oh! O-oh!" She bounced excitedly. "I'm sure miss Satori has room in our house!" She looked back at her pink haired owner, of whom gave a nod.

"Alright." The head doctor replied, picking up a paper her rabbit assistant held for her. "She is going to need many foods high in iron and ascorbic acid. She needs to recover from her anemia. If she has meat regularly, access to pepper, citrus, and broccoli, she should recover quickly."

The two nodded.

"However," she continued "her recovery will take a month at least."

Eirin handed her notes to Satori. "This has more information that you will need."

After collectively paying for the bill, the group all split off to their households, tired from the previous night's events, and staying up most of the same evening as well.

* * *

Satori and Utsuho returned to their mansion, and sat Reimu down at the dining table. The mind reader read the list, glad that the only thing she'd need to buy was the fish and the broccoli. She looked around for the wooden bowl, and restocked the fruits in it, putting in a generous amount of citrus, and laying it upon the table.

Meanwhile, the couple, sat next to eachother, happy they could be together. The former miko found it quite difficult to move around, her body feeling incredibly weak. She resolved to just leaning on the Raven for support for now, but knew she'd have to try and walk later. She looked back up at her support and saw that they looked a little disgruntled.

"Hey, you okay?" Reimu inquired in a soft voice.

The corvid looked around, then down at the girl on her shoulder. It looked like she wanted to say something, but decided against it. The girl decided it was best not to pry, and stayed still.

"Ooku, go check up on the reactor for a bit, then we should go to sleep soon." Satori told her.

She complied, and went off, leaving Reimu to herself, as the mind reader and Rin went to get food.

 _"The Hakurei Goddess has left the shrine." "You're not allowed to set foot in the shrine…"_

The words plagued her. It felt like she left her entire life behind, like she was starting over. She couldn't stop think that is was the heat of Ooku's love was so intense that it burn away everything that she used to be, and the girl wasn't entire sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Yukari also said that she'd need to find a new deity, but she couldn't really think of any deities that she knew of, or at least ones she'd actually trust and wouldn't bother worshipping or working under.

She sighed, not knowing where to being addressing the problems. If this really was an opportunity for her to leave her old life behind, what should she change herself to be? She she change herself at all?

…

Did she make the wrong choice…?

Silence filled the room until Satori and Rin came back with food.

The proceeding cooking and serving of the food was uneventful, but the dish they'd prepared looked great. Cooked fish with greens and rice.

"H-Hey, this looks pretty expensive… you made this just because I'm here?"

The duo nodded, as if it were a normal thing to do. Meanwhile Reimu just looked down at the plate, surprised by their hospitality; though, when she went to eat the food, she found her hands too shaky and weak to properly grasp or maneuver her chopsticks. Even when offered a spoon, it simply vibrated out of her hand. Utsuho quickly came to her aid, feeding her her food.

As dinner finished, everyone started to clean up

"Hey, Satori, let me help." Reimu said, trying to get up, but failing. All she managed to do was to thump herself against the floor. Ooku picked her up, and brought her to her room.

"Thanks." The girl replied, an intense feeling of discomfort spreading throughout her body. The feeling was morphed and intensified into embarrassment, as she'd found herself being undressed.

"U-Utsuho!?" She exclaimed, covering herself.

"Lady Satori told me to change your clothes." The raven replied, looking amiss as to why they looked so surprised to being redressed.

They both calmed down, as Reimu was dressed in some of the hell raven's clothing… although they'd been put on backwards. It didn't really matter, as it covered everything that she'd want clothes to cover. Even if they were a bit baggy, she didn't mind it that much. The hell raven looked down at her expectantly, as if waiting for the girl to do something, but she kept looking at the ground around her solemnly. It took a couple of seconds, but Utsuho decided to get in bed with her, folding up her wings and sleeping adjacent to her.

Even as she tried to keep her mind off of Yukari's word's, Reimu still found herself thinking about them. Replaying them over in her mind as if her mind were trying to torment her with the thought of never being able to return to her home. Eventually, the thought caught up with her emotions, and and she started to weep silently, for a life she could never return to. Perhaps she'd really made the wrong choice.

* * *

When she awoke, she found the bed vacant of her avian companion. Not even a moment later, the door opened, revealing the owner of her companion, who looked quite concerned.

"What did you do?" Satori asked, looking to already be formulating an answer by the time the ex-shrine maiden went to respond.

"Doesn't seem like you did anything wrong…" They preemptively responded, cutting the girl off. She went to respond once more. "Yeah, she might've…"

"Can you let me talk at least!? I know you can read my mind but I'd at least like to talk." The girl interjected "At Least then I'll feel a bit less like dead weight."

The two took a second for her to cool down a bit, before she kick started the conversation back up.

"I don't know what I did wrong. It could've just been the stress getting to her?" Reimu suggested, but judging by Sarori's expression, it was untrue.

"No. She was crying. Okuu doesn't cry when she gets stressed, I know."

She kept thinking back to the previous day, and anything she might've done to upset the bird. The only thing she could really think of was crying into their chest when the two slept, but she just couldn't think of anything else.

"Can't think of anything?" The mind reader asked, seeming to be mulling over their thoughts as well.

Reimu was about to chew the pink one out again, but had an epiphany right as she opened her mouth.

"She's probably not used to voicing her feelings, because she lives with you." She stated.

"Maybe. It'd be best for you to talk to her then. But I have a question."

She perked up, listening to the pink one.

"Do you think meeting with my Ooku was a mistake?"

She gave it a hard thought, her mind coming up with the answer _'Ynœs'_

The mind reader gave her a more deadpan than usually glare. "I'm… not convinced." They paused, "do you _really_ want to meet with her?"

She meditated on the thought, thinking of the past month. Some of the memories were hazy, but she could still remember what made them important. The time she spent with Utsuho, helping her if she needed help with the duties, they still stuck in her mind. Though she could remember times when things went sour, like her accidentally burning parts of the shrine and lawn trying to chase someone away, and the bird's propensity of acting spoiled if she didn't get enough praise for something she felt proud about, though Reimu felt like she could mostly look past it. In all, she knew what she wanted most to happen again.

With that thought, the satori gave her a knowing glance as they picked her up, and took her down a flight of stairs. At the bottom was quite a large, square door that, despite its thickness, still had massive amounts of heat permitting through it. Even despite the girl's visible nervousness, she was taken through the door to what looked like a small landing pad. Satori set her down on one of the railing and left, but her legs were so weak that they collapsed under her, making her breath heavier.

Looking for Utsuho, she found her doting on the generator. It was a lot larger than she'd first thought, it being almost thrice the height of the raven, and having nearly hyperbolic amounts of heat being produced in the room around it.

"O-Okuu!" She tried calling, her throat muscles not exactly being the best for shouting.

It was enough to get the corvid's attention, but she ignored the girl's cry.

"I-I just want to…" She have off a surprisingly loud and chesty cough. "...talk."

Reimu could feel her moisture leaving her, sweat covering her and giving her an almost oily sheen. Her mouth was drying up to the point where she had to put conscious effort into creating saliva, the air were as if someone were trying to suck all of water out of lungs, and she could hardly keep her eyes open. She was astonished and kind of scared with how hot the generator room was.

After hearing her cough and looking at her dehydrating figure, the bird swiftly swooped down, holding her head in her arms.

"R-Reimu! You okay!?" She asked, panicked.

"Yeah, I just wanna talk. About us."

Utsuho nodded in response.

"Tell me what I did wrong yesterday. I want to know why I made you sad. I can't read your mind like Satori can, so _you need_ to talk to me about your feelings. I _can't_ know any other way."

The bird hesitated a bit, averting her gaze a little. "Do you think meeting me was a mistake?"

Reimu wanted to respond right then, but Utsuho cut her off.

"All of yesterday you looked so sad. I tried to cheer you up, but you didn't. You even refused to let me help and you cried yourself to sleep last night…" She sniffed, a few tears starting to fall down her face. "Do you regret m-meeting me…? Is it my fault th-that you c-can't go home? D-do y-you h… do you hate me?" She'd started cry halfway through asking her, letting go of the girl as she wept.

The girl, in return, used what little strength she had in her body, and hugged Okuu close, locking the two into a deep kiss. The two felt an intense closeness as they embraced eachother yet tighter. As time slowed down, what could've been mere seconds extended, the two only breaking the kiss when they ran out of breath. They looked at eachother their doubts wiped away.

The moment was broken as the two had become increasingly aware of the Reimu's state, glistening from her sweat and reeking of BO.

"Let's take a bath." The raven suggested, picking her up and taking her there.

On the way there, she looked up at her avian companion, remembering scenes of her helping around the shrine. She could still feel their infectious joy, and her child-like enthusiasm as she worked. During this Okuu seemed to have noticed her looking at them, and smiled. The girl could remember many times she'd seen that smile. A pure, warm smile. It was like the sun's warm embrace, a familiar comfort food.

The ex-miko nestled closer to Utsuho, finding herself smiling in response.

Then Reimu knew.

No.

She'd made the right choice.


	9. Chapter 9: Ping Pong

Reimu still had to get used to her life of being ferried around everywhere, having to ask Utsuho to carry her from place to place. She knew the effect would wear off soon, but until that day, she was feeling very impatient with herself. It didn't hurt as much to move her head, and her hands were steady enough for her to use a spoon now. She'd regained feeling her legs recently, but couldn't actually move them in any helpful way; furthermore, her arms were just barely strong enough to pull herself across the floor.

There was a big upside though.

She was being carried around almost all day by the raven. It was like being in a nice, safe bed. Sometimes she'd have to be woken up, but it tended not to be a problem. What was a problem was her being dropped. She knew the bird could get distracted… but did sh–

"Uhf!" She cried, landing on her shoulder blades with a quiet thump.

"Sorry!" Her personal carrier responded, quickly picking her back up. "You're just so light, and you're not very warm, so I sometimes forget you're there!" She remarked, sheepishly.

"Well, maybe you should hold me closer to your face, so you can always see me." The girl responded playfully. It wasn't like a few drops were going to damage her too much. She'd only been dropped a handful of times over the week she'd been there.

The couple sat down at the table, Satori placing food onto it as they did. Both Rin and Utsuho began eating ravenously, but the corvid made much more of a mess of herself. The mind reader sat up to clean her pet's face off, checking her to see if it'd be a good time to preen her. Her eyes then drifted to Reimu, as she noticed something a little off about her.

"Okuu, have you been brushing her hair?" Judging by how long it was taking for her to think of when, she obviously hadn't. She sighed, sat up and left the room for a bit, returning with a brush in hand.

"You don't have to do that fo- Ow!" The human responded, a large tangled part of her hair getting caught on the brush.

"This is why you need to brush her hair, Okuu." She presented some of the knot that got snagged off to the bird, continuing to brush the girl's hair afterwards.

Although a bit odd having her hair brushed while eating, she didn't mind all that much, finishing her meal by the time Satori finished.

"Thanks for the meal. And for brushing my hair." She thanked, giving her the plate.

As the couple went to get up, they heard a knock on the door, and Utsuho walked over to let them in. She was rapidly greeted by Alice and Marisa, the latter of which trying to slide past her to reach Reimu.

"Oh! Hi!" She beamed, letting the two in.

Marisa immediately went in for a hug, much to her friend's chagrin, as the tightness was painful to her recovering body.

"How've ya been?"

"Bedridden." The ex-miko responded "But I have Okuu to carry me around." She smiled at the raven in question.

"So… ya ain't been able to move? Explains why ya feel so boney n' fragile."

"We came to check on you, and maybe hang out for a bit… but…" Alice started to fan herself a little "it's really _hot_ here…"

"I don't think there's anything cold here… so you're just gonna have to get used to it." Reimu noted, not noticing that she'd actually gotten used to the heat herself.

As the two went to sit down, they noticed something off about the girl…

"Hey… Uhh…" The puppeteer paused.

"Ya know ya shirt's backwards… right?" The stout one asked, looking at the girl, then back at the raven, comparing their clothes.

"Yeah. I just feel like if I put it the right way around that it reveals too much of my front. I'm pretty sure Okuu did it as a joke at first though."

The magical duo shrugged, Alice standing up, walking to the girl's side.

"You said you can't walk, right?" She inquired.

Reimu nodded, and then suddenly felt herself hoisted into the air. She looked around to see where she was being grabbed, but noted small strings attached to her body.

"I've always wanted to try this on Marisa, but since you can't walk, I don't have to worry about your body fighting against me!" The magician smiled.

"Hey careful! I might collapse under…" The human puppet looked down at her feet, which were planted on the ground, and were actually keeping her body up. Experimentally, she moved her leg a bit, and felt no shift her balance.

"Stay still! I might accidentally hurt you if you keep moving."

While being controlled, she was lost in thought. Maybe if she asked Alice to do this to her every once in awhile, she could recover faster? That way she could walk immediately after the month was over, and not have to worry about her legs being too weak to even do chores around the shr… Oh yeah. She had to find a new deity to enshrine by the end of the month…

"Hey! Reimu!" She heard Utsuho yell at her. "Are you okay?"

She looked around her, and saw the three all looking at her worried, seemed she'd blanked out for a second.

"Yeah, yeah" she reassured "I'm fine, I was just thinking… Alice, maybe you could come over here more often? I can actually walk when you're controlling me."

The puppeteer was surprised. Not expecting her joke to have beneficial effects on her friend. When she gathered herself, she immediately agreed, and knowing the implications of working on this more, she flashed her fellow magician a malicious smile, who in turn laughed nervously.

"What did you guys come here for in the first place anyways? I know you wanted to hang out, but I don't know if that was just a pun or not now." Reimu asked, suspended in the air.

"Ah no, we actually wanted to talk."

The four sat down at the table for awhile, all taking turns recounting what happened the day Reimu went missing and their miscellaneous adventures that took place afterwards. Apparently Alice had been refining her skills with her Atlantis doll type, but had otherwise found herself in a creative slump, causing her to spend a few lazy days on the porch, just looking out at the forest. She did help a kid find their way back to the village, which she recounted as if it were the highlight of her week.

Marisa recounted mostly of how now was peak mushroom hunting season, as the weather was going to become more and more humid as summer rolled in. She also spoke of many more Jizo statues being erected around the forest, and finding it kind of odd.

By the time Reimu went to speak, the morning had passed, and time was tipping deep into the afternoon. Both Rin and Satori had finished their respective jobs, and returned, mildly surprised to see the quartet. The mind reader immediately went to prepare food, even as Reimu and Alice tried to politely decline. As the afternoon turned to evening, the pink one took out an old hot plate and pot, and decided it'd be good for them all to have a hot pot. The meal went by swimmingly, the noise of the conversation building to the point where most all six ended up shouting to communicate to eachother.

Evening eventually gave way to night, and the duo of magicians flew off.

* * *

It took about two weeks for Reimu to become comfortable enough walking with Alice's strings until she proposed her plan of going outside and talking to the different deities around Gensokyo.

"Yeah. I thought it'd be good to get walking outside again. I don't think Okuu should be joining me, though."

"Why not?" The raven protested, clinging to the girl's arm.

"I'm going to the human village. Alice is already friendly with the humans and they're not suspicious of her if she ever came into the village."

"Wait, you were going to go in that?" The puppeteer gestured tward both the oversized, backwards shirt she was wearing, and her, nearly falling skirt. "At least let me lend you some proper clothes."

The human shrugged, and agreed, but noticed she'd have to fly with the aid of her avian companion. Once they landed at the magician's cottage, she was sat down, and waited for the magician to find clothes that would fit her. It didn't take long before she was dressed, then...

"..."

"..."

The human couldn't help but be angry at her friend as she snorted, failing to cover up their laughter. She'd been dressed in a very lolita styled dress, frills at almost every end, additionally being a pastel pink colour. The entire attire burst out of her, the level of poofiness being great enough to require a small lattice wireframe on the inside to keep the dress in its position. She didn't really enjoy the abundant amount of little bows either.

"Y'know if I knocked this chair forwards enough… I might be able to punch you."

It took but a second more of laughter before she acted on her threat, and threw herself toward the puppeteer, feeling a familiar painful tightness in her muscles as she stopped mere centimetres before hitting the ground.

She was redressed into more sensible clothing. A loose white button-up t-shirt, and a blue dress. It certainly fit her, but it seemed like it wasn't made for someone of her height, the width was perfect though.

They went off to the village afterwards, stopping near the outskirts. Once landed, the girl was securely attached to lax wires as she led them both to a small bookstore. It was quite shack-like, but definitely built to last. The entrance was covered by two drapes, and above said drapes were three square flags that spelled out the store's name: 'Suzunaan.'

The inside was decently cramped, except for the centre of its single room. Looking directly towards the entrance was a reception desk, and beside it were capillary-like ailes of bookshelves. Each shelf was absolutely packed with books, and many had scrolls on their tops, a few of which gave off a sinister aura.

"Hey, 'Suzu?" Reimu called into the store.

The sound of jingling bells followed a short early twenty-something's girl carrying quite a few books and scrolls. She had orange hair, which was tied into two pigtails, and held together by the aforementioned bells. Her eyes were brown, and she wore a long checkerboarded white and red dress with green sleeves.

"Hey! W-wait!"

She placed the books on the counter behind her.

"Reimu? I thought you were still recovering!" The short girl exclaimed, walking up to the ex-miko.

"Wait, how did you know that, Suzu?"

"Aya wrote about it in her latest paper. I-I still can't believe you got ousted as shrine maiden! It sent shocks around Gensokyo. The fairies are causing more mischief and Youkai attacks are starting to become a more frequent. Everyone's worried, other shrines are trying to gain the trust of the village, and..."

Reimu backed away "Woah, woah. Slow down." She took a second to absorb all the information, and looking to Alice to see if the girl was right before responding in proper. "We're actually here for that. I can't do anything right now, but if you help me find books on gods…"

Kosuzu grabbed her chin, and walked to a couple different sections of the store, muttering to herself all the while. She ended up with a small pile of books, most of them quite thick, though being of various ages.

"You can read these in the store if you want to, then I won't charge you for taking them out."

Suddenly, the trio were joined by a fourth person. Aya came into the shop, dressed in her human attire, a crow perched on her shoulder.

"I was told that the ex-miko was stopping by, so I thought I'd interview her for a little bit…" She eyed Reimu with an almost predatory look, causing the girl to jump back a little.

* * *

"So… what surname do you even go by now?" The tengu asked

"I… don't."

"What do you mean you 'don't'?"

"I'm just… 'Reimu' now. Hakurei was like a clan name, so I can't go by 'Hakurei Reimu' anymore."

Aya tapped her chin with her pen, deep in thought. Alice were busy having their own conversation while the interview was happening, and the entire situation was accompanied by the silent sounds of page flipping and tea sipping.

"You _must have_ had a surname before this… right?"

The human finished reading the sentence before thinking about it,but no matter how long she thought about it, all she could remember was being coronated as the next Hakurei miko at a young age, and working ever since then. It was a permanence she never recognized until it was gone.

"Reimu?" The crow asked, tapping the girl on the head.

"Oh! Umm… I can't remember. I was the Hakurei shrine maiden when I was young, so I can't remember anything from before then…" She looked down solemnly, the words on the page in front of her being nothing but fuzzy shadows.

"Hey… you okay?"

"Oh um! Yeah...! Yeah." She closed her eyes and shook her head a little, everything sharpening as the characters in the page became recognizable again.

"I guess I just… miss being a miko, y'know?" She resumed reading, re-reading the paragraph to get her bearings straight.

She kept reading for a few pages, the reporter's writing serving as her background music.

"So… what type of deity would you want to serve under this time? I mean, you can actually _choose_ who you want to be your deity this time, so… who?"

Reimu thought for a moment. "I'm not sure, personally, but I'd want a god who would talk to me at least. The Hakurei deity never really told me anything about themselves, or really ever made themselves apparent to me. I'd like to avoid that this time."

This seemed to please Aya greatly, as she wrote furiously in her notebook. She left not too long afterwards, letting the group achieve a semi-permanent silence. Kosuzu had to walk out every once in awhile to help various customers, but it was otherwise uneventful. It turned night pretty quickly, only knowing this after being told my the shopkeeper herself.

"I thought I'd be looking for the deities themselves by now… but I guess not. I'll come back tomorrow, the pile on the right are the books I finished reading."

With a nod, she returned back to former hell, thanked Alice for her work, and retired to Utsuho's room for the night. The hell raven wasn't all too pleased with her, but after explaining, she understood better.

* * *

Reimu and the puppeteer returned to the bookstore the next day. The two were almost immediately met with the crow tengu, of whom has just dropped off her latest issues at the store.

"I knew you'd come back! Your troubles are going to be gone in a jiffy, I just know it!"

"What do you mean?" They both asked her, but the only response they got was the corvid sticking out her tongue before flying off.

They both shrugged and went back into the store, forgetting about the encounter. Only a short while later, Kosuzu was called out.

"Is Reimu here?" Someone asked.

It was slightly intimidating to have such a large group of people arrive to her bookstore at the same time, but the girl eventually mustered up the nerve to reply.

"Um… yeah? Why?" The librarian asked the group.

"Could you bring her out?"

She complied, and as Reimu walked out, she came face to face with messengers for various deities in Gensokyo. Even when Alice tugged at her with the strings, she was still frozen in place, stuck between her flight or fight response.

"W-what are you guys here for…?" She asked them.

Sanae in particular jumped out of the group. She wore similar garb to Reimu's old miko outfit, but instead of red trims, her outfit had blue trims instead. She was a fair bit taller than the girl, and had a frog headband and snake hair cuff.

"Well… we read miss Aya's most recent article… and we all want to know if you'd convert your old shrine into a shrine for our gods! It would help with public image."

A few of the other messengers eyed her, displeased by her revealing their true intentions, but it didn't stop them from trying.

"Heh… you're popular." Alice remarked, pushing the girl forwards as she knew there was really no out to this.

The girl found herself tumbling onto the ground, no longer supported by the puppeteer's wires. She could only just stand up, but she would crater soon afterwards if she tried to take a step.

"Hey, Alice what are you…?"

"I'd love to stay while they talk to you… but I have some business to attend to… so I'll just leave the, to you." She replied flying out of the store.

The rest of the group looked at her in confusion, unsure of why she couldn't walk despite standing up effortlessly not long after.

"I… Uhh.. Can't walk on my own…" she admitted, knowing they'd keep looking at her strange if she didn't explain herself.

"That doesn't really matter, we can just carry you then." The green miko replied, picking her up "Oooh. You're pretty light."

The rest of her day comprised of her being ferried around from shrine to shrine, sometimes a temple too. Each of the messengers and, in rare cases, gods themselves explained to her why she should convert her shrine to following them. There were a few odd cases, though, like how somehow both Kasen and Eiki both found her at different times just to lecture her, and how when she was introduced to Byakuren, they set up a small tea ceremony to talk to her. That was a nice change of pace.

The entire day took a lot out of her, and as the last of them finished, she could swear she'd been out for at least two days. She asked to just be sent back to Suzunaan after the entire ordeal had finished, and she was absolutely exhausted. Lucky for her, Marisa was in the shop by the time she'd gotten back.

"Oh! Yo Reimu. I was jus checkin' to see if ya'd come back yet. Lemme get Alice to come back."

The magician flew off as the ex-miko crawled her way into the back, hoping to get at least a little more reading done. Despite being personally introduced to multiple deities, she'd hadn't felt like she'd gotten any closer to finding herself a new god for the shrine.

"Let's see… sun gods… Why not? Not like It's going to change much…"

She lazily flipped through the pages, continuing even when Alice returned, explaining to her that she just wanted to read a little bit longer. None of them really helped… until…

"Yatagarasu? solar bird…? Wait…"

She asked Alice to take her back to the Palace of the Earth Spirits, and once arrived, quickly opened the door.

"Okuu!"

"W-what!?" The raven cried, quite surprised.

"Are you a yatagarasu?"

She nodded.

Almost immediately the girl threw herself at the corvid, hugging her while laughing.

"I'm going to enshrine you!"

" _...what_?"


End file.
